Farhad’s and Mike’s Week in Tech: Betting on … Diverse Work Forces – The New York Times

2016/08/15 Leave a comment

More on lack of diversity in tech, this time with respect to Snapchat and its obliviousness to diversity:

Farhad: Finally, Snapchat put out a racist picture filter — again. This week the photo-messaging app unveiled a feature that lets you turn your face into that of an anime character. At least, that was what it said it intended. What it ended up with was “yellowface” — a filter that turns your face into a crude racial caricature of Asian people. This is bad enough on its own, but it’s made worse by the fact that it isn’t the first time this happened. Snapchat released a blackface filter in April.

The company has taken the filter down, but what’s the deal? Should we read something more into the fact that the company has recently put out two obviously overtly racist products?

Mike: So it’s pretty mind-boggling that both of these things got through the organization and into the app. It brings up a few questions.

What do the ranks of the organization look like in order to make something like this O.K. in the eyes of at least a number of people in the company? Questions of diversity obviously spring to mind — which Snapchat has never really addressed or divulged numbers on publicly — and I imagine a more diverse staff might have at least caused some people to question their choices in putting these filters out.

If there were indeed people inside of Snapchat that found these filters objectionable — and I certainly hope there were — what does the organization structure look like and how does it function in a way that allows these decisions to go unchecked and ultimately carried out? Are those people who would object able to make their voices heard internally? And if not, why not?

I doubt we’ll get a ton of transparency from Snapchat on the issue, since they’re quite a secretive company anyway.

Farhad: katie zhu, a Chinese-American engineer and product manager who works at Medium (and who prefers that her name be rendered in lowercase), published a really insightful post on this incident. She urged people to delete Snapchat.

 “They’ve repeatedly demonstrated their blasé attitude towards issues of diversity, inclusion and representation,” she wrote.

She pointed out that Evan Spiegel, Snapchat’s chief executive, was unwilling to disclose how diverse his company is during an interview at the Code Conference last year. Spiegel also seemed uncomfortable with the notion that the tech industry has had a particular problem hiring a diverse work force (which seems obvious according to the numbers).

“I think I’m saying that diversity is a challenge everywhere, including tech — and that’s kind of that,” Spiegel told the interviewer, Walt Mossberg. When Mossberg pressed him, Spiegel still seemed hesitant. “There are so many things that feed into diversity and inequality that unpacking them on the stage is probably not the best use of time,” he said.

Mike: I was at that conference. It was super awkward.

Farhad: Snapchat says it recently hired a recruiter to focus on hiring underrepresented minorities, so perhaps Spiegel’s view has changed.

To me, these two incidents do underscore the importance of a diverse work force: Tech companies are usually small groups of homogeneous people who are trying to make products that satisfy the entire planet. At the very least, a diverse work force can help guard against them making choices that offend large swaths of their potential userbase. Even more than that, a diverse work force can help them come up with new ideas that may not have occurred to 20-something Stanford bros.

Mike: That’s why I applaud companies that make it a goal of theirs to strive for diversity at the outset, something that, unless you’ve really made it a point to think about these issues, an entrepreneur may not have even thought of. Perhaps it is also on the venture capitalists and mentors to remind young entrepreneurs that aiming for diversity is, in fact, a strength, and something to be considered when growing the company.

One would hope this doesn’t happen again, but this is tech: anything goes, however terrible.

Source: Farhad’s and Mike’s Week in Tech: Betting on Jet and Diverse Work Forces – The New York Times

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Muslim Women in the U.K. Are The Most Economically Disadvantaged | TIME

2016/08/13 Leave a comment

Not surprising given patterns of UK immigration. Comparable numbers in Canada: the unemployment rate of Muslim women is 10 percent higher than Christian women, the participation rate 8 percent lower:

A new report has found that Muslim women are the most economically disadvantaged group in Britain, blighted by the highest level of unemployment compared to other religious and ethnic groups in the country.

Muslims, who make up 4.8% of the population of England and Wales, are more than two times likely to be unemployed compared to the general population. Women make up 65% of economic inactive Muslims are women, compared to 59% across all religions, says the report released by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, a cross-party group of British lawmakers.

The report also found that traditional family practices affected Muslim women’s job prospects; 44% of all economically inactive Muslim women were not in work because they were looking after the home, compared to a national average of 16%.

The report says Muslim women looking for work or in employment also face a “triple penalty” of being a woman, part of an ethnic minority and being Muslim. It said Muslim women suffered the “impact of Islamophobia” on women’s job prospects, facing discrimination due to their beliefs, culture or clothing.

“We heard evidence that stereotypical views of Muslim women can act as a barrier to work,” the Committee Chair and Conservative Member of Parliament Maria Miller said in a statement. “The data suggests that in communities these patterns are shifting across generations but we remain concerned that this shift is happening too slowly and that not all Muslim women are being treated equally.”

The committee called on the government to roll out a plan to tackle these inequalities by the end of 2016. They also called for “name-blind recruitment” for all employers, following studies that suggest people with white-sounding names are more likely to get interviews.

Source: Muslim Women in the U.K. Are The Most Economically Disadvantaged | TIME

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Justin Trudeau to apologize for historic persecution of gay Canadians

2016/08/13 Leave a comment

Working the way through the needed apology list:

As early as this autumn, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will apologize on behalf of all Canadians to those who were imprisoned, fired from their jobs or otherwise persecuted in the past because of their sexuality.

That apology is a key element in a broad range of reforms that will collectively represent one of the greatest advances for sexual minorities in Canada’s history.

“This is a long-awaited moment and a very emotional moment, to be honest,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale, a national organization that advocates for the rights of sexual minorities. “For the government to recognize the damage that it caused, the harm that it caused, to thousands and thousands of Canadians is a historic moment for our communities.”

The Globe and Mail has learned of the planned reforms from numerous sources within and outside the government.

In essence, the Liberals have decided to act on most or all of the recommendations of The Just Society, a report submitted to the government in June by Egale. The title refers to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s program for rights protection and social reform.

Those recommendations include:

  • Apologizing to people who were convicted of gross indecency for committing homosexual acts in the years before 1969, when same-sex acts between consensual adults were decriminalized. Those convictions will be pardoned, expunged or in some other fashion stricken from the records of those convicted;
  • Apologizing to those who were dismissed from the public service, discharged from the military or otherwise discriminated against in government work because they were homosexual. It was only in the 1990s that the federal government ceased efforts to identify and expel homosexuals in the military;
  • Eliminating the difference in the age of consent for sexual acts. The current age of consent is 16, but it is 18 for anal intercourse, which discriminates against and stigmatizes young homosexuals.
  • Examining whether and how to compensate those who suffered past discrimination because of who they were or whom they loved. This could involve individual compensation and/or funding for programs or services;
  • Requiring all police officers or others who work in the justice system to receive human-rights training, with an emphasis on the historic wrong of treating members of sexual minorities as criminals and on the current bias that all too often still exists;
  • Providing similar training to Customs officials, who still are more likely to ban homosexual materials from crossing the border, while permitting their heterosexual equivalents;
  • Implementing procedures to protect the dignity of transgender or intersex persons in prisons or jails;
  • Eliminating laws, such as keeping a bawdy house, that can be used to criminally charge those who visit a bathhouse or who practise group sex.

Some actions can be taken immediately; others will take longer, though the government is committed to fully acting on the Just Society recommendations before the next election.

Source: Justin Trudeau to apologize for historic persecution of gay Canadians – The Globe and Mail

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Germany: Who′s afraid of dual citizenship? | Opinion | DW.COM

2016/08/13 Leave a comment

While in my opinion the article focuses too much on identify aspects of dual citizenship while ignoring the practical aspects that require many to retain their old citizenship in order to be able to easily visit their country of origin, it gives a flavour of German debates:

The issue of dual citizenship is dividing opinion in Germany. The arguments against it are old fashioned to say the least: Citizens cannot “serve two masters,” and the conflict of allegiance for those who possess two passports is emphasized. Such arguments are designed to influence mood and create fear: Opponents of dual citizenship often talk of the threat of a “fifth column” for despots and autocrats, and call into question the democratic will and capacity of those with two passports. The message is clear: Danger is on the way!

But the argument is not aimed at Trump supporters among American-Germans, Le Pen supporters among French-Germans, Kaczynski fans among the 690,000 Polish-Germans, nor those among the 570,000 Russian-Germans that are sympathetic to Vladimir Putin. No, the problem is with those among the 530,000 Turkish-German dual citizens in Germany that support Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan is currently Germany’s favorite bogeyman, the one person that threatens European democracy and that we should all be afraid of. And we should also fear his fifth column, the Turkish-Germans living here and just waiting for Ankara to give them the signal to mobilize.

Enemies of democracy

 However: Doing away with dual citizenship will not solve any of the real or perceived problems that its opponents envision. Dual citizenship is anchored in current EU law. Thus, EU citizens cannot be deprived of it. Therefore Germans have to tolerate the Orban supporters among Hungarian-Germans as well as the nostalgic right-wing extremist Ustashe fans among Croatian-Germans.

Apparently, the real issue only has to do with the Turks. In that case it would serve us well to recall a few facts: According to the 2011 federal census, about 4.3 million people in Germany had citizenship in a second country in addition to being German passport holders. Of those, some 500,000 were Turks. In comparison: 1.5 million Turkish people were living in Germany without German passports, and 800,000 people of Turkish origin had only a German passport. So, on the whole, less than 20 percent of all Turks in Germany have dual citizenship. So where exactly does the threat to German democracy lie?

This most recent discussion on dual citizenship flared up at a pro-Erdogan demonstration two weekends ago in Cologne. Some 30,000 to 40,000 people demonstrated at the event – which figures out to about six or seven percent of all Turkish-German dual citizens, or 1.5 percent of all persons of Turkish descent living in Germany. Even if every single person at the event were an avowed enemy of democracy – it would still be no greater a number than all opinion polls and election results tend to register among ethnic Germans with no immigrant background.

Not a threat – an enrichment

The favorite argument of dual citizenship opponents is the equation: two passports = dual allegiance. That has little to do with reality. Multi-faceted identity is a matter of fact for millions of people with migrant backgrounds living in Germany. It is a matter of different languages, different cultures and different answers to the question: Where do I feel comfortable, where am I at home? Dual citizenship is a possible answer, and a clear sign of belonging to two different worlds. The belief that someone who is forced to forfeit a passport will also forfeit his or her loyalty is a fallacy. It would only lead to bitterness, hypocrisy and estrangement. For loyalty is like love: You can force someone to have sex, but you cannot force them to love you!

Of course democracy must have the possibility to defend itself against its enemies. But modern democracies can only survive and flourish as open societies. One expression of this openness is to allow citizens to live their identities as they feel them – even if that means they need two passports to do so.

Source: Opinion: Who′s afraid of dual citizenship? | Opinion | DW.COM | 09.08.2016

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Germany mulls stripping citizenship in terror crackdown – France 24

2016/08/13 Leave a comment

To watch:

Germany’s interior minister has proposed tough new security measures including deporting foreigners and revoking citizenship after two attacks claimed by the Islamic state group.

At a press conference on Thursday Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière outlined plans to beef up federal security forces, make the promotion of terrorism a crime and strip German citizenship from dual nationals who fight for foreign militias.

After terrorist attacks on German soil this year, two of them by migrants, the minister has been under intense pressure from both the political right, who want fewer Muslim migrants, and the left, who’ve been calling for a stronger police presence.

“A lot of people … are worried about further attacks. That is understandable,” De Maizière told reporters. “No one can guarantee absolute security, but we must do what is possible.”

‘Politically reasonable’

Revoking German citizenship would go some way towards dealing with the estimated 820 Germans fighting in Syria and Iraq who may pose a threat on their return to Germany.

It’s nonetheless considered a controversial proposal with Green lawmaker Volker Beck among those condemning it as “desperate activism”.

Social Democrats (SPD) chief Sigmar Gabriel said his party — the government’s junior coalition partner — are not open to just “any populist quick fix”, but that they are “ready for discussions on anything that can contribute to reinforcing security”.

And the security package has yet to be approved by the country’s right-left coalition and German parliament.

Deportations

Beyond the issue of homegrown terrorism, the minister is proposing to make it easier to deport terror suspects and detain foreigners who have committed crimes or are a public security risk.

A tightening of German and European Union weapons laws is also on the cards.

De Maizière said he was limiting himself to policies that could be implemented quickly, and that he considered “politically reasonable”.

Source: Germany mulls stripping citizenship in terror crackdown – France 24

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ICYMI: Ottawa poised to ease rules for temporary foreign worker program

2016/08/13 Leave a comment

Getting rid of the LMIA, if followed through as the Minister indicated, is significant:

The federal government is setting the stage for a loosening of temporary foreign worker rules after vocal complaints from Canadian employers that recent Conservative changes went too far.

A Liberal-dominated House of Commons committee has completed a report on options for altering the controversial program and will make the recommendations public next month when Parliament resumes.

The report is expected to acknowledge the need for temporary foreign workers in specific sectors and will stress the importance of providing foreign workers with options to become permanent Canadian residents. The number of foreign-worker approvals has been on the decline in recent years in light of a softer jobs market in some regions and tighter rules brought in by the Conservatives after high-profile allegations of abuse in the program.

The report by the human-resources committee was completed in June but wasn’t made public in time for the summer recess. The government has said it is waiting on those recommendations before moving ahead later this year with changes to the program. However, Immigration Minister John McCallum tipped the government’s hand this week in an interview with The Globe and Mail in China when he said the Liberal government will make it easier for companies to bring in foreign workers.

“We’re also going to reduce some of the barriers and the silly rules … in order to give companies freedom to bring in the best and the brightest,” said Mr. McCallum. “We’ll get rid of many of these [required] labour-market impact assessments which slow things down enormously.”

A spokesperson in Mr. McCallum’s office said the minister’s reference to silly rules relates to some of the restrictions that apply to visiting professors. The spokesperson also noted that the minister has said the government is looking at waving labour-market impact assessments in certain cases where that would help attract top talent to come to Canada.

“What the minister wants to do is just find a middle ground,” said the spokesperson.

A labour-market impact assessment is a government screening process designed to ensure there is a legitimate need for a temporary foreign worker and that no Canadian is available to do the job. The minister said the Conservative changes went too far and the Liberals are trying to strike an “intermediate” position. Government officials stressed Wednesday that no final decisions have been made.

Opposition MPs on the committee said Wednesday that the minister’s comments reflect the view of the Liberal majority that worked on the report.

Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, the committee vice-chair, said Mr. McCallum’s comments are “absolutely” in line with the conclusions of the yet-to-be-released study.

“The government was wanting to go in one specific direction and wanted the report to back them up,” he said. Mr. Zimmer said he agrees with the Liberals that there are some legitimate industry needs for foreign workers, but that requests need to be constantly weighed against economic realities.

“The conditions in our economy simply have changed,” he said. “He can’t just say broadly that we need them absolutely. We always need to be looking at what our economy is doing.”

Source: Ottawa poised to ease rules for temporary foreign worker program – The Globe and Mail

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More indigenous judges needed in lower courts to develop skills for Supreme Court: Beverley Mclachlan interview

2016/08/12 Leave a comment

Valid points and hence the focus should be more on the yet to be formalized new process to appoint federally-appointed judges that better reflect Canada’s diversity, and the actual implementation by the government (for those who missed my analysis of the current baseline, see my Diversity among federal and provincial judges – Policy Options):

Canada’s top judge says the best way to one day see an aboriginal person named to the Supreme Court of Canada is for governments to appoint more indigenous judges to lower courts.

In an exclusive interview with the Star, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said the country’s highest court requires high-level judging and “considerable” judicial experience, and while she welcomes ethnic diversity and more aboriginal judges in the system, she suggested they must work their way up.

She said the challenge for aboriginal aspirants to the high court is the same that women faced three or four decades ago when there were “virtually no women on the bench. And so how did the government go about changing that to the point now where we’re four women on the Supreme Court of Canada? They started appointing people at the trial level.

“But the difficulty we have with racial minorities, indigenous people is that we’re just beginning this process of getting the judges in place on the trial benches and so on.”

The federal government has launched a new judicial selection process, striking an independent advisory board to recommend candidates to fill the top court vacancy announced in March by retiring Justice Thomas Cromwell, of Nova Scotia, who steps down at the end of August.

Trudeau wants the seven-member advisory board to recommend jurists “of the highest calibre” who must be functionally bilingual and “representative of the diversity” of Canada.

The new process has again shone a light on the lack of diversity in Canada’s judicial ranks.

McLachlin was consulted by the government as it devised the new selection process. She will also be consulted by the advisory board as it canvasses for Cromwell’s replacement. She was careful not to express an opinion on the government’s changes, saying reforms to judicial selection for greater transparency have been an ongoing project, and it is up to the government to set its criteria, including the bilingualism requirement. “I’m not about to comment on that because it’s not my business.”

 However, she did endorse the functional bilingualism prerequisite as “desirable” even though she herself was not fully, functionally bilingual when first appointed in 1989 to the Supreme Court of Canada by then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. That came after she actually started working in the law in French, she said.

Most of the judges at the top court are “completely bilingual now and those who might lack something are working very hard to improve their skill and the court works very well this way,” she said.

“Let me put it this way. It’s possible for the court to function without everyone being bilingual. We’ve done it in the past and I think we’ve done our job well. However, I believe that functional bilingualism is very helpful and desirable.”

But the question of diversity on the court is more complicated.

McLachlin pointed to her own experience. She was first appointed to the County Court of Vancouver “where I thought maybe that’s where I’d spend the rest of my days. And then I worked my way up through the trial court and through the court of appeal, and finally to the Supreme Court of Canada.”

Now women make up about 35 per cent of Canadian judges, she said. “We’ve been able to achieve a significant measure of diversity on the gender front and,” she stressed, “have judges who are reflective of this high calibre of judicial experience, intellectual experience and judgment and familiarity with the law and judging. So we’ve been able to have it all.”

McLachlin is encouraged by “a host of very accomplished indigenous lawyers and professors” who she said are the result of proactive programs in law schools and universities and better educational standards. However, she did not suggest any of those are in a position to be vaulted onto the top bench from the bar, as has been the case with some Supreme Court judges in the past: Suzanne Côté, Ian Binnie, John Sopinka.

Asked if there are any current sitting aboriginal judges that could sit on the high court, McLachlin dodged.

“I can’t say; I haven’t done a survey. We’ll see who applies, and what comes of it.”

Source: More indigenous judges needed in lower courts to develop skills for Supreme Court: Beverley McLachlin | Toronto Star

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Getting Syrians here was easy. Now comes the hard part.

2016/08/12 Leave a comment

Good long read by Michael Friscolanti:

But as accurate as that may be, the Trudeau government has no firm statistics on how many Syrian refugees are actually earning a paycheque. This much is certain, though: to expect that every family will be self-sufficient after 12 months is wishful thinking.

“Some will do better than others,” says Carolyn Davis, executive director of Catholic Crosscultural Services, a settlement agency that also provides training courses for private sponsors. “Some will probably be independent and no longer requiring assistance before month 13, some will be independent by month 13, and some will not be independent by month 13. It would be very hard for me to put any numbers or proportions on that, but there will be people in every single one of those circumstances.”

That some government-assisted refugees end up on social assistance is hardly new. Departmental figures show that in 2009 (the latest stats available), 49 per cent of government-sponsored refugees who had arrived two years earlier were collecting welfare (compared to 19 per cent of privately sponsored refugees). Although most gradually wean off (50 per cent after the second year, 75 per cent by the fourth), a proportion stay dependent on welfare for the rest of the their lives.

“I think, as Canadians, we need to wrap our heads around that,” Douglas says. “These are refugees. These are not people who made a choice to come to Canada. These are folks who have been running for their lives, who have experienced things we can’t even begin to imagine, and as a country, we absolutely have to understand that we will always have refugees who will never be able to work.”

Indeed, it’s important to remember that government-assisted refugees are specifically flagged by the UNHCR because they are considered the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. They aren’t chosen because of job skills.

“In general, people are going to need to have a realistic viewpoint of the maximum you can expect,” Desloges says. “There is so much hopefulness and joy around the program right now, which is wonderful, but not everyone is going to succeed. You’re going to have some superstars who are going to grab this opportunity with two hands and become something wonderful, but we have to be realistic in our expectation. Just be grateful that we were able to save some lives.”

In the meantime, though, cities are bracing for month 13, well aware that a significant number of Syrians will soon transfer from federal to provincial assistance, at least temporarily. “It’s a big challenge, there is no way around it,” says Qaqish, the city councillor in Ottawa, which has welcomed more than 1,500 Syrians. “The province pays for social assistance but the municipalities administer it. We’ve asked the feds if they are open to the idea of extending federal assistance, maybe for another six months.”

Like others, Qaqish worries that some refugees will no longer be able to afford their rent because many landlords initially lowered prices in a show of solidarity with the Syrian program. Some stakeholders also fear the optics: a refugee collecting a welfare cheque is hardly the stuff of photo-ops.

“One refugee that fails resettlement is not acceptable, because it means we as a society failed to make sure those people integrated,” says Rabea Allos, director of the Catholic Refugee Sponsors Council, an umbrella organization for private sponsorship groups. “You don’t want, a year or two down the road, for Canadians to become upset with the refugee program and believe that some people are abusing the system. They will say: ‘You know what? Let’s stop getting refugees in.’ This is the concern. We want the program to work so Canadians will continue this compassion toward bringing more refugees.”

Source: Getting Syrians here was easy. Now comes the hard part. – Macleans.ca

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Is ‘birth tourism’ a problem in Canada? Doctors on frontline of debate

2016/08/12 Leave a comment

All the available evidence shows that the numbers are extremely small, both in absolute terms and in relation to the overall number of births in Canada.

IRCC, if it is not already doing so, should be systematically collect better quality data, working with provincial health ministries, rather than the piece meal data that we have now.

Despite the small numbers, there is a need to regulate or prohibit birth tourism consultancy services to avoid a further increase in the numbers. The CMA might also wish to take a more pro-active role.

Changing birthright citizenship, as the previous government learned, is not feasible without provincial buy-in given the various linkages between provincial vital statistics agencies and healthcare systems and any measure to restrict birthright citizenship:

Birth tourism appears to be on the rise in some parts of Canada, raising questions for doctors and hospitals, as well as debate about Canada’s practice of offering instant citizenship to infants born in the country.

“We sense there’s a growing demand in birth tourism from several countries, especially considering the instability in today’s world,” Alex Davidson, managing partner of the Toronto-based LP Group, told CTV News. “There are more and more people coming in and approaching us.”

Davidson said he typically sees two types of clients. Some are wealthy individuals, often from European countries, who want a “second passport” for their children and are able to pay anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 to deliver a baby in Canada.

Davidson said some of his recent clients have included U.K. residents worried about the post-Brexit future once their country leaves the European Union.

Others are people from poor, crime-ridden countries who want to provide security for their children, and hope that their Canadian babies can provide an anchor in the country for the rest of the family.

“Canada has been perceived — well, it is — as a safe harbour on this planet,” Davidson said.

He said LP Group helps birth tourism clients find temporary accommodations in the country and the firm also has a list of Canadian doctors who are willing to see foreign patients.

“Elena” is a pregnant woman from Russia now awaiting to give birth in Toronto. She spoke to CTV News on condition of anonymity.

“My baby will get Canadian citizenship upon delivery and also with a Canadian passport he will get some benefits like free school and free healthcare,” she said. “It is good for the baby I think because the baby gets to choose if he wants to live in Russia, as in my case, or in Canada.”

At a recent Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada conference, Dr. Fiona Mattatall an obstetrician in Calgary, presented figures that show an increase in the number of overseas patients who have given birth in Calgary hospitals.

She said there are now about 10 “passport babies” born each month in the city’s hospitals. Her survey also found many doctors are uncomfortable with the practice.

While many overseas patients pay to have their babies delivered in Canada, some do not, leaving hospitals on the hook for the costs.

Dr. Saul Pytka, a Calgary anesthesiologist, said he’s alarmed by the issue.

“I am frustrated — and I have to be honest, angered — by the fact that as a society we are being abused. I think we are a very generous society,” he said.

Under the Citizenship Act, all babies born on Canadian soil are automatically granted citizenship, except for children of foreign diplomats.

Canada and the United States are the only G7 countries that have birthright citizenship. Other countries like France, Germany and Australia have revoked automatic citizenship unless at least one of the parents is a national citizen.

Birth tourism is not illegal in Canada. There is no official federal data on “birth tourism,” and some say the numbers are still small. According to Statistics Canada figures from 2012, the most recent year for which numbers are available, there were only 699 babies born in Canada to foreign mothers out of more than 382,000 births across the country.

But one immigration consultant says there has “certainly” been an increase in birth tourism in Canada over the past few years with sites advertising companies that assist in getting pregnant women to Canada.

“The best gift you can give your child is a Canadian passport” says one website.

A potentially costly overhaul

In 2014, immigration officials urged the Conservative government to restrict granting citizenship by birth on Canadian soil to children with at least one parent who is a citizen or permanent resident.

But the report cited limited data and possible increased costs to provinces and territories as potential barriers to legislation reform.

Will Tao, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, told CTV News Channel last week that overhauling birthright citizenship rules could be extremely costly for Ottawa.

“Let’s actually look at what are the motivating factors, what are the organizations that are working abroad, perhaps without reference to Canadian law, and promoting individuals to come here,” Tao said.

Online searches turn up dozens of organizations and groups in various countries that offer advice and help facilitate travel for women who want to give birth in Canada.

“Perhaps it is not illegal right now, but perhaps it needs to be curbed or organizations that are running the services need to be stopped,” Tao said.

He also said that panic over birth tourism, especially in British Columbia, is being fuelled by a “general misunderstanding of who a foreign national is.”

Many foreign nationals have study or work permits, “and in my mind these individuals are all on the pathway to permanent residency,” Tao said.

A petition that seeks to eliminate automatic citizenship for babies born to foreign nationals in Canada is adding fire to the debate.

Kerry Starchuk, a Richmond, B.C., woman, is calling on the federal government to enact legislation that will require at least one parent to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident in order for a baby born on Canadian soil to be granted automatic citizenship.

The petition, sponsored by Conservative MP Alice Wong, has garnered more than 6,700 signatures since June 16 and will eventually be introduced in the House of Commons.

Starchuk said she started the petition because she suspects a house next door to hers serves as a motel for pregnant foreigners who come to Canada to secure birthright citizenships for their babies.

Source: Is ‘birth tourism’ a problem in Canada? Doctors on frontline of debate | CTV News

In a related story, the Canadian Medical Protective Association highlights potential medical and liability issues:

The Canadian Medical Protective Association is cautioning doctors about providing medical services to birth tourists coming here to have babies in order to acquire Canadian citizenship for their newborns.

“Canadian physicians who provide care to non-residents are at increased risk of medical-legal difficulties arising outside of Canada,” says a notice from the CMPA. “The Association is not structured to assist when medical-legal actions are instigated by non-residents outside of Canada.”

The CMPA is the legal defence organization for doctors; it provides and pays lawyers and settlements when doctors are sued for malpractice by Canadian patients. The new bulletin to physicians regarding medical tourism is relevant and timely, given a local trend where an ever-increasing number of non-residents (from 18 in 2010 to 339 last year) are having their babies, mostly at Richmond Hospital. The Vancouver Sun and The Province have reported that the provincial government is now aware of more than two dozen “birth houses” where pregnant women stay prior to, and after, the births of their babies, before returning to China.

Birth tourism brokers marketing their services show photos of Lower Mainland hospitals and lists of Mandarin speaking doctors to deliver babies.

The CMPA statement — titled “Emerging trends and medical-legal risks in medical tourism” — warns that while there are still more Canadians travelling abroad for medical treatment than foreign visitors coming here, there are risks to think about for both patient groups. Doctors should ensure foreign patients sign agreements promising not to sue outside of Canada and they should also make sure they fully document discussions with non-residents and the care provided to them.

 The CMPA said it cannot share information about the number of doctors sued by birth tourists. But it is attuned to the broader trend of medical tourism.

“We have published guidance for physicians on the medical-legal risks associated with medical tourism and the steps they can take to mitigate risks associated with this practice,” said Dr. Doug Bell, a managing director at CMPA.

Source: Canadian birth tourism doctors cautioned on risk of liability | Vancouver Sun

Filed under Birthright Citizenship, Citizenship Tagged with , ,

Liberals defied global trend in reversing OAS age eligibility

2016/08/12 Leave a comment

Anecdote over evidence by the Liberal Government. One of the weaknesses of the previous Conservative government was their lack of effective and consistent engagement on the grounds for policy and program changes, with few exceptions.

This change was announced at Davos and never really well explained or advocated.

This does not excuse the current government for its disregarding some of the evidence but is a reminder of the need to consult and engage broadly to build public understanding and support for significant policy and program changes:

The Liberal government reversed a policy to raise the eligibility age for Old Age Security to 67 in spite of arguments from bureaucrats that the move would be bucking a trend among developed countries.

Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and the United States are among the countries that plan to raise their equivalent pension ages to 67 or higher.

That is the global context outlined for the new government in an internal policy paper, marked secret, that was prepared in September during last year’s election and makes reference to political promises related to seniors and pensions.

 The Liberal Party’s campaign included a pledge to scrap the Conservative government’s plan to raise the OAS eligibility age to 67 from 65 by 2029. The new government delivered on this promise with its first budget, in March.

The public servants noted that reversing such a reform would be unusual. “Among the 34 OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] member countries, 23 have announced increases or have already increased the age of eligibility for public pensions,” states the policy paper, which was released via the Access to Information Act.

It said that “no country has reversed its decision or lowered the age of eligibility.”

The paper was produced by the seniors and pension policy secretariat of Employment and Social Development Canada. It was presented to the deputy minister of the department.

Source: Liberals defied global trend in reversing OAS age eligibility – The Globe and Mail

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