US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders, citing security concerns

2023/08/02 Leave a comment

Of note. Canada requires an ETA:

The United States imposed new travel restrictions on citizens of Hungary on Tuesday over concerns that the identities of nearly 1 million foreigners granted Hungarian passports over nine years weren’t sufficiently verified, according to the U.S. Embassy and a government official.

The restrictions apply to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which allows passport holders from 40 countries to enter the United States for business or tourism without a visa for up to 90 days.

The validity period of travel for Hungarian passport holders under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization was reduced from two years to one year, and each traveler will be limited to a single entry into the United States. They are the only such restrictions among the 40 participating states in the Visa Waiver Program.

A senior U.S. government official said the change followed years of failed efforts by the U.S. to work with Hungary’s government to resolve the security concerns. The official spoke anonymously in order to candidly characterize diplomatic engagements.

Hundreds of thousands of Hungarian passports were issued without stringent identity verification requirements, some of them to criminals who pose a safety threat and have no connection to Hungary, the official said.

Hungary’s government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, began offering a simplified naturalization procedure to those claiming Hungarian ancestry in 2011, even if they didn’t live or intend to live in Hungary.

Hundreds of thousands of the at least 2 million ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries — primarily in Romania, Serbia and Ukraine — acquired Hungarian citizenship through the simplified procedure.

Critics said the program allowed non-taxpaying ethnic Hungarians residing in other countries to vote in Hungarian elections, giving Orban’s ruling Fidesz party an electoral edge.

The United States earlier recategorized Hungary as a provisional member of the Visa Waiver Program because of the concerns.

Hungary’s government responded to the restrictions Tuesday in a statement from the Interior Ministry.

The statement said the United States had demanded the personal data of ethnic Hungarians abroad with dual citizenship, and that Hungary’s government was unwilling to provide that information in order to protect those citizens’ security.

“This is why President Joe Biden’s administration is now taking revenge on Hungarians,” the statement said.

Source: US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders, citing security concerns

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‘Quite alarming’: Study reveals hostility toward immigrants in London, Middlesex

2023/08/02 Leave a comment

Not sure how significant the study is given the small numbers. And no evidence cited to justify or quantify the statement that some may leave:
A new study shows immigrants in London and Middlesex County regularly face discrimination with a majority of people surveyed reporting some form of harassment or discrimination.
The study, funded by the London and Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership, examined the experiences of 30 London and Middlesex County immigrant and racialized people.
It’s a followup to a survey conducted by the same team that found about 60 per cent of those who identified as immigrants in Southwestern Ontario said they experienced some level of discrimination or racism in the last three years.“The stories we heard were quite alarming in terms of the types of experiences people are having in our community and how it made them feel and how it may be influencing their lives,” Victoria Esses, director of the Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations at Western University, said. “It’s important to know if we don’t treat people well they are not going to stay here.”

A group of Western University researchers led by Esses heard newcomers say they were overlooked for promotion and their work was underappreciated. Those surveyed also described being called names or being yelled at in public, researchers said.

“The reaction . . . is to be depressed, upset and crying because of these attacks,” Esses said.  “(They were) feeling that their health and careers were being impacted . . . not feeling that they belong in the community and not willing to stay here.”

“You can have all the plans you want (to welcome immigrants to London and Middlesex County), but if people are not being treated properly in the community, they’re going to leave,” Esses said.

Jonathan Juha, communications officer for the London and Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership, said attracting immigrants is only half of the equation.

“Retaining that talent and getting people to stay here is critical, but the chances of someone choosing London as the place where they put down roots go down if they don’t feel welcome in the community,” he said.

People often are afraid to report discrimination or they don’t know where to report it, Esses said.

“(We need to be ) much more explicit in the workplace about what constitutes discrimination and that there is zero tolerance for it and what people should do when they experience it,” Esses said.

“Our suggestions include having a much more transparent process for reporting discrimination and making it safe for people to do that.”

Source: ‘Quite alarming’: Study reveals hostility toward immigrants in London, Middlesex

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Khan: Sinead O’Connor’s road to Islam serves as an inspiration

2023/08/02 Leave a comment

Of note:

Toward the end of graduate school, I embarked on a deeply personal spiritual journey, immersing myself in the study of the Qur’an. As a result, pop culture passed me by in the 1990s – including that era’s music.

So, it was only last week that I first saw the music video for Nothing Compares 2 U, the classic song by the Irish singer known professionally as Sinead O’Connor, after her death at the age of 56.The footage was mesmerizing and raw, and the glistening tears she shed elicited a well of emotions from me. And that voice! Words cannot do it justice.

I wasn’t paying attention in 1992 when she ripped up a photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, decrying sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The photo had belonged to her mother, and upon her death, Ms. O’Connor took it with the intent to destroy it, in revenge for the ways in which she had suffered terribly at the hands of her mother, the Church and its institutions.

But the backlash was swift and brutal. Madonna, Frank Sinatra and Joe Pesci denigrated her; her albums were crushed by a steamroller at Rockefeller Plaza. Her actions were deemed “a gesture of hate” by Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston, and “an example of anti-Catholicism” by a spokesperson for Cardinal Roger Mahony, then the archbishop of Los Angeles. (Cardinal Law would resign in 2002, while Cardinal Mahony would be removed from public duties in 2013, both for shielding sexually abusive clergy.)

Her courage was breathtaking. “I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant,” she told the New York Times in 2021. Nonetheless, “it was very traumatizing … It was open season on treating me like a crazy bitch.” The evisceration of her musical career was a steep price to pay for being a woman who was unflinchingly ahead of her time.

Throughout her life, Sinead O’Connor stood up for the dispossessed: abused women and children; gay, lesbian and transgender people; AIDS patients, racial minorities and Palestinians (she refused to play in Israel in 2014). She donated her Hollywood mansion to famine-stricken children in Somalia. There has been an outpouring of reflection about her honest struggles with mental health, and about her strength in the face of trials she endured, such as the heartbreaking suicide of her son last year.

But some tributes have underplayed her Muslim faith. In 2018, after years of studying texts from a range of religions and leaving the Qur’an for last (”I had bought into the nonsense that people talked about Islam,” she admitted), she found her home in the Qur’an, and changed her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat. Umar Al-Qadri, chief imam at the Islamic Centre of Ireland and her spiritual adviser, spoke with NPR last week about what attracted her to Islam: “the fact that you can communicate with God directly,” he said, as well as the confirmation of the original Torah and Bible, along with the prophets.

A friend also gave her a hijab, which she donned in private, tweeting: “Not gonna post a photo because is intensely personal. I’m an ugly old hag. But I’m a very, very, very happy old hag.” Ms. Sadaqat would appear often in public wearing the hijab, believing that a woman had the right to wear it or not. In many photos, her inner radiance – her noor, in Arabic – shines through. And earlier this year, beaming from under her keffiyeh, she dedicated her Classic Irish Album award to Ireland’s refugee community: “You’re very welcome in Ireland. Mashallah. I love you very much and I wish you happiness.”

In a 2021 interview with Good Morning Britain, Ms. Sadaqat said that prior to converting, she would listen to the adhan (the Islamic call to prayer) and find solace in its perfection and optimism. And when she converted, Mr. Al-Qadri allowed her to give the adhan in his mosque; a recording of her prayer shows women, children and men of different races entranced, some weeping upon hearing her call. I wept too, when I watched it.

Upon Ms. Sadaqat’s death, many Muslims invoked another traditional prayer: “to God we belong and to God is our return.” It is a reminder that death will visit us all. She was our sister in faith, and we, her ummah – her world community.

She was a trailblazer, ahead of her time. Though she is gone, her light shines on. And while I may have missed her rise to fame decades ago, I am grateful to have learned – even now, after she has returned to God – about her compassion, her uncompromising commitment to justice, and her humanity. Let us all do the same.

Sheema Khan is the author of Of Hockey and Hijab: Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman.

Source: Sinead O’Connor’s road to Islam serves as an inspiration

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Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp can teach Jason Aldean a thing or two about small towns

2023/08/01 Leave a comment

Haven’t been following the Aldean controversy (never listened to him) but found this contrast of interest:

One of the many absurdities of present political discourse is that the people who most obnoxiously declare their love for America hate most of its institutions, people and traditions. The latest example of the right-wing contradiction between sentimentality and substance is country singer Jason Aldean‘s statement that he is a “proud American.” “I love our country,” he said, before eloquently adding, “I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bulls**t started happening to us.”

It is not only easy to find better politics in small towns, but also better music.

Aldean was defending and explaining his new hit single, “Try That in a Small Town.” Written by Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy and Kurt Allison, “Try That in a Small Town” has Aldean adopting a vaguely threatening posture, telling listeners that if they “cuss out a cop” or “stomp on the flag,” they are likely to suffer the penalty of vigilante violence. “You cross that line,” Aldean snarls in an unconvincing and boring attempt at bravado, “It won’t take long for you to find out . . .”

Aldean is fond of wearing muscle shirts even though his arms have no size or definition. His wardrobe is emblematic of his music and politics – a costume suggesting strength, but exposing that there’s nothing really there. It is tempting to leave it at that, but Aldean has millions of fans who have shot the song up to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, all while he whines about “cancel culture.” The song provides an insight into the paranoia, hostility and estrangement that define contemporary Republican politics.

To what exactly is Aldean referring when he decries “bulls**t”? He mentions flag burning – something that may or may not offend people – but, like cussing at a cop, is protected by the First Amendment of the United Constitution. Evidently, the “bulls**t” goes back to the founding of the country when the constitutional framers wrote down the words of the Bill of Rights. In the second verse, he sings not about gun control, but a favorite and asinine conspiracy theory of the paranoid right: “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that s**t might fly in the city, good luck.”

There is no “they” planning a gun confiscation program. Gun control is another matter. Perhaps, Aldean has forgotten that the March for Our Lives mass demonstration that took place in 880 cities, many of them small towns, across the United States on March 24, 2018 was organized by survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting. Parkland has a population of 35,000 people. There are many people in small towns who don’t like the idea of risking violent death every time they attend class, shop in a grocery store or attend a county music concert in Las Vegas (where Aldean was a performer).

The video for “Try That in a Small Town” signifies the less obvious, but more insidious message of the song. It originally included footage from Black Lives Matter protests – now edited out – and shows Aldean and his band performing at the steps of the courthouse of Columbia, Tennessee – the site where a racist mob of terrorists lynched Henry Choate, a Black teenager, in 1927. It is plausible that Aldean and his brain trust did not know of the lynching when they selected the location, but the ugly coincidence demonstrates the danger of what Sheryll Cashin, professor at Georgetown Law School, calls, “boundary maintenance” – that is the “intentional state action to create and maintain a racialized physical order.” The state action, as Cashin explains, produces attendant social and cultural effects.

“Try That in a Small Town” amplifies the “Real Americans” cliché that Sarah Palin used to animate the Republican electorate in 2008, and now functions as right-wing dogma. One lyric brags that the town is full of “good ol’ boys raised up right.” This nonsense implies that American authenticity exists only in a small exurb somewhere far from “the city” where white people dutifully file into the megachurch every Sunday morning. A Puerto Rican lesbian who works as a nurse at New York hospital is, somehow, less of an American than the white guy fondling his “granddad’s gun.” CMT has refused to play the “Try That in a Small Town” video, and in response, South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, and governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis – two proud America-haters – have come to his defense.

It is not only easy to find better politics in small towns, but also better music. One of the most influential songs to depict small town life is John Mellencamp‘s 1985 hit, “Small Town.” Taking inspiration from his hometown of Seymour, Indiana, Mellencamp sings about a beautiful and hospitable community. Over a sparse, roots rock arrangement that bounces along with an infectious melody, Mellencamp boasts that in the “small town” of his youth, “People let me be just what I want to be.”

The song is one of the most dramatic moments on his record, “Scarecrow” – a collection of songs that protest big agriculture’s destruction of the family farmer, racism and American indifference to poverty. The record juxtaposes protest with celebration of individual courage and compassion. In “Small Town,” the singer announces an undying love and loyalty for those whose kindness and support helped shape him. A tribute to his grandfather, “Minutes to Memories,” makes use of a rock-meets-twang guitar riff and big Motown drum beat, to praise the integrity of those who believe “an honest man’s pillow is his peace of mind.”

Mellencamp’s thoughtful love for his “small town” . . . provides an artistic model for how to balance patriotism and protest.

In the same year that Mellencamp released “Small Town,” he collaborated with Willie Nelson and Neil Young to found Farm Aid – an annual benefit concert and organization committed to assisting family farmers. Unlike Aldean’s posturing, Mellencamp’s activism has directly benefitted those struggling with hardship and deprivation in states like Indiana, and Aldean’s native Georgia.

Mellencamp also showcases the maturity necessary to wrestle with the sublime and hideous in his beloved small town America. While songs like “Small Town,” “Cherry Bomb” and “Thundering Hearts” give a romantic view of provincial villages, he also writes and performs music that condemns and mourns the bigotry and narrow-mindedness so often prevalent in those same places. “Jackie Brown” is one of the most moving lamentations of poverty put to record, “Jena,” gives fiery denunciation of a history of hate crimes in Jena, Louisiana and “Melting Pot,” over Dave Grissom’s blistering lead guitar, explores American hypocrisy in public policy and race relations. “Pink Houses,” Mellencamp most famous slice of Americana, balances patriotic celebration with rage against continual exploitation of the poor.

The left too often dismisses patriotism as naïve or central to destructive right-wing politics of hatred and exclusion. But people have a healthy desire to feel proud of their homes and heritage. Mellencamp’s thoughtful love for his “small town,” as opposed to Aldean’s reactionary tantrum, provides an artistic model for how to balance patriotism and protest.

Bruce Springsteen gave equal weight to both impulses in his 2007 song, “Long Walk Home.” Set in a small town with familiar locales – a barbershop, mom and pop grocery store, VFW – Springsteen’s character navigates the American landscape after the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq and violation of civil liberties. As the song swells to a triumphant conclusion, featuring a characteristically powerful Clarence Clemons saxophone solo, Springsteen sings,

My father said “Son, we’re lucky in this town,
It’s a beautiful place to be born.
It just wraps its arms around you,
Nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone.
That flag flying over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone.
Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t.”
It’s gonna be a long walk home . . .

 Mellencamp is proud of a small town where he can be just what he wants to be, and Springsteen imagines an idyllic setting of communal solidarity and individual freedom. Their small town vision welcomes the Black Lives Matter protester, the trans teenager and the elderly, white Christian. All have a home. The flag, rather than menacing those who oppose official policy, provides security and assurance – representing the Bill of Rights, democratic safeguards, the rule of law and a culture of personal choice.

The unfortunate popularity of Jason Aldean should not deceive the causal observer. As the CMT video ban would suggest, his brand of parochial prejudice is losing in music and politics. Tyler Childers, an neotraditional country and Americana singer/songwriter from Kentucky writes country songs telling the stories of progressive politics and largehearted humanity in rural America. His newest song and video, co-written with Kentucky poet laureate, Silas House, “In Your Love,” beautifully depicts a gay romance. He has previously written rallying cries for racial justice, and protest songs against religious bigotry – all from a small town perspective.

Rhiannon Giddens, one of America’s most exciting and brilliant songwriters, hails from Greensboro, North Carolina – not exactly a small town, but she makes use of pastoral settings to explore racial oppression and indigenous history. As one music critic wrote of her work, it “systematically dismantles the myth of a homogenous Appalachia.”

Childers and Giddens have not commented on “Try That in a Small Town,” but Jason Isbell, who has a storied history of progressive protest songs from a small town vantage point, first with the Drive-By Truckers and now as a solo artist, ridiculed Aldean for promoting violence, and challenged him to “write his own song.”

The hospitality of Mellencamp’s and Springsteen’s small towns are . . . conquering more electoral territory.

Miranda Lambert, one of the most popular mainstream country singer/songwriters, places at the center of her musical and political philosophy, “ya’ll do ya’ll,” expressing support for LGBTQ rights and acceptance, and lambasting laws in Tennessee and Texas that prohibit public drag shows.

The hospitality of Mellencamp’s and Springsteen’s small towns are not only influencing younger musicians, but conquering more electoral territory. Joe Biden became president partially because of strong support in the suburbs of Phoenix, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee and Atlanta. Congressional districts representing large metro suburbs continue to turn Democratic. Many of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 took place in small towns like Valparaiso, Indiana and Havre, Montana. I live in a small town of Indiana with a population of 24,000 people. It has its own Black Lives Matter chapter, and a local environmental group.

Aldean’s dark and restrictive small town mentality is moving out of the suburbs, especially as they become more liberal, and into exurbia. Further from an urban center and with fewer people and less diversity, exurbia is now the breeding and staging ground of right-wing extremism. The lyrics of “Try That in a Small Town” are shallow, but no more or less foolish and paranoid than the nightly ravings on Fox News or the lies of Donald Trump’s speeches. The reactionary, exurban mentality has turned against the American culture, visible in provincial and urban America alike, of Mellencamp, Springsteen, Giddens and Lambert. It lives in a world of conspiracy and fear, imagining that an America that never truly existed is under assault from a coordinated plot. Multiculturalism, secularism and sexual liberalism are not the hallmarks of genuine, grassroots progress, but evil schemes to undermine white, Christian society.

The reality is that the progressive small town is winning throughout much of America, and those who want to “make America great again” or “restore” the country to what it once was will find that a clock only ticks forward. Willie Nelson has probably forgotten more about small towns and American history than Aldean will ever learn. He might have put it best with a lyric that is both summational and aspirational: “The world’s getting smaller / And everyone in it belongs.”

Source: Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp can teach Jason Aldean a …

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Ibbitson: The Liberals must fix the housing crisis, before it undermines support for immigration

2023/08/01 Leave a comment

Indeed. But ramping up housing is harder than ramping up immigration, given the complexities and time lags. So unlikely Minister Fraser will be able to show concrete results before the election, begging the question why not pausing planned increases in immigration to allow housing etc to start catching up:

In last week’s cabinet shuffle, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promoted Sean Fraser, one of his government’s rising stars, from immigration to housing. His job in this new portfolio is to fix the problem he contributed to in his old one.

Mr. Fraser must find a way to ease this country’s critical housing shortage, a problem the Liberal government is stoking by bringing in more than a million newcomers a year to Canada.

High levels of immigration bring growth, energy and confidence to our country. But they also bring problems. Mr. Fraser must fix the worst problem of all, or risk undermining the Canadian experiment.

In 2022, Canada welcomed 437,000 new permanent residents. Add in temporary foreign workers, international students and other non-permanent residents, and you have a population that is now growing by more than a million people a year, or 2.7 per cent, by far the highest growth in the G7. Today, we are 40 million people.

Statistics Canada estimates that “such a rate of population growth would lead to the Canadian population doubling in about 26 years.” Given that Japan, South Korea and most European countries are declining, or soon will decline, in population – thanks to low birth rates and little or no immigration – Canada a generation from now could be one of the larger developed countries, equal to or even ahead of Germany, France and Britain in population.

These new arrivals help ease labour shortages caused by retiring baby boomers. In 2010, 14 per cent of Canada’s population was 65 or older. Last year, it was 19 per cent. By 2030, it will be around 23 per cent.

The shortages are made worse by Canada’s falling total fertility rate (TFR), which reached a record low of 1.4 children per woman in 2020 – far below the replacement TFR of 2.1 children per woman.

Those who argue that Canada should increase its birth rate rather than rely on immigration to stabilize or grow the population are just wrong. Hungary, Singapore and the Nordic countries have adopted natalist policies to get their fertility rate up to 2.1. They and others have failed. Governments should always support women who want to have children and still preserve their career path. But that is a matter of social equity.

In most respects, then, this Liberal government’s policy of expanding Canada’s already robust immigration policy has been a good thing. But it also contributes to an acute housing shortage. A recent TD Bank report predicts that, if current trends continue, the gap between housing supply and demand could reach 500,000 units through 2025.

For Mr. Fraser’s part, “I can tell you that, 365 days a year, I will choose the problem of having to rapidly build more houses because so many people want to move to my community over losing schools and hospitals because so many people are leaving,” he told Maclean’s magazine when he was still immigration minister.

Now “the problem of having to rapidly build more houses” is his to solve.

Because he’s a Liberal, Mr. Fraser will likely approach the problem through a combination of regulations and incentives. He would be wise to also steal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s approach: require municipalities to loosen restrictions on development as a condition of receiving grants.

In truth, everything is needed: converting vacant office buildings to condominiums, densifying existing neighbourhoods, increasing the supply of subsidized housing and, whether you like it or not, permitting suburban sprawl.

Thus far, Mr. Poilievre has avoided calling for limits to immigration. He recently told journalists that immigration targets should be “driven by the number of employers who have job vacancies they cannot fill with Canadians, by the number of charities that want to sponsor refugees, and by families that can reunite and support their loved ones here.” That could easily get you to a million new arrivals, permanent and temporary, a year.

Much is at stake. If Canadians attribute unaffordable housing to high levels of immigration, they may demand cutbacks.

That would be tragic. Whatever the challenges, new Canadians enrich this country. By coming here, they vote their confidence in Canada’s future and help to realize that future.

We should welcome a million new arrivals a year. We just need to find places for them to live.

Source: The Liberals must fix the housing crisis, before it undermines support for immigration

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Le sentiment d’appartenance des immigrants au Québec s’effrite par rapport au Canada

2023/08/01 Leave a comment

Not surprising given Loi 21 and other initiatives:

Les débats sur la laïcité ont permis au Canada de marquer des points dans la guerre d’usure avec le Québec pour la loyauté des immigrants racisés. Le sentiment d’appartenir à la communauté québécoise n’a pas décliné entre 2012 et 2019, mais cet « élan » s’est néanmoins affaibli par rapport à la volonté d’être canadien, indique une nouvelle étude.

Ce déficit d’appartenance à la province s’est aussi étendu aux minorités non religieuses et à celles qui sont francophones durant cette période. Elles étaient pourtant moins susceptibles d’être touchées par les deux « événements focalisateurs » sous la loupe de cet article publié récemment dans la Revue canadienne de science politique que sont le projet de charte des valeurs et le projet de loi 21 sur la laïcité de l’État.

Les chercheurs ont mesuré l’évolution de l’appartenance à travers trois enquêtes qui coïncident dans le temps avec ces grands débats de société, soit en 2012, 2014 et 2019. « Au début de la période étudiée, on voit que, chez les immigrants non religieux ou francophones, il n’y a pas de préférence marquée entre le Québec ou le Canada. L’appartenance à l’un ou l’autre est aussi forte », explique Antoine Bilodeau, professeur de science politique à l’Université Concordia et coauteur de l’étude avec Luc Turgeon.

Ces perceptions évoluent, avec un creux en 2014, pour ensuite stagner envers le Québec. Mais pendant ce temps, le sentiment d’appartenance envers le Canada grandit, et cet effet est généralisé à tous les immigrants racisés, pas seulement ceux qui sont religieux ou qui ne sont pas francophones.

« Cela indique que les groupes minoritaires ont perçu ces débats comme une remise en question plus large de la relation avec la majorité. Ce qui est en trame de fond de tout ça, chez certains partisans [de la laïcité], mais beaucoup chez ses détracteurs, c’est que ces politiques reflètent le malaise du Québec avec la diversité grandissante », détaille-t-il.

Mais ce lien n’est pas causal avec une certitude absolue. Les chercheurs constatent plutôt que l’aiguille a bougé en faveur du fédéral sur le cadran de l’appartenance et attribuent cette modification à des facteurs déjà bien démontrés. Même si la transformation n’est pas totale, elle correspond dans le temps avec ces moments clés et elle est cohérente avec la littérature scientifique.

Un certain nombre d’études au Québec laissaient déjà entendre que les débats sur les symboles religieux avaient nourri un sentiment d’exclusion, mais elles ne permettaient pas de faire cette comparaison avant et après les propositions législatives.

Les deux auteurs, cette fois, ne peuvent « que conclure que les débats sur l’interdiction des symboles religieux à travers les propositions législatives qui ont pris place en 2014 et en 2019 ont contribué à détériorer la relation des immigrants racisés avec la communauté politique québécoise ou, plus précisément, ont contribué à creuser l’écart dans le sentiment d’appartenance à l’avantage du Canada », écrivent-ils dans l’étude.

Deux modèles

« Au fond, la perception est que le modèle fédéral est plus flexible dans sa définition de qui il reconnaît comme citoyen à part entière », résume le professeur, qui étudie ces aspects depuis nombre d’années. Et les débats sur la laïcité sont « venus consolider ou accentuer cette perception ».

Les deux coauteurs citent d’ailleurs l’ancien premier ministre Jacques Parizeau, qui s’inquiétait en 2013 que le projet de charte des valeurs du Parti québécois fasse la part belle au fédéralisme, qui allait pouvoir ainsi se présenter comme le véritable défenseur des minorités.

« Il [Jacques Parizeau] disait “vous allez perdre de vue la dynamique de compétition”. L’étude lui donne raison », explique M. Bilodeau.

Encore plus frappant aux yeux du coauteur de l’étude, la perte du sentiment d’appartenance vis-à-vis du gouvernement québécois « est causée par ses propres actions », plutôt que, par exemple, la passivité ou l’incapacité à rattraper le fédéral.

Autre fait intéressant, le sentiment d’appartenance des immigrants racisés a été mesuré par deux aspects : l’attachement et le sentiment d’être accepté. Le concept d’appartenance est ainsi mieux compris dans sa dimension relationnelle, une relation à deux sens.

« C’est un peu comme demander “est-ce que je veux faire partie du groupe ? [attachement] Puis, est-ce que j’ai la perception que le groupe veut que j’en fasse partie ? [sentiment d’acceptation]” », détaille M. Bilodeau.

On pourrait penser que c’est surtout le sentiment d’acceptation qui a été touché : « Intuitivement, on dirait, ce geste me montre qu’ils ne veulent pas de moi. » Mais il y a, selon le professeur, un effet boomerang sur le désir de faire partie de la communauté, sur le sentiment d’attachement. « Non seulement c’est que je sens, qu’ils ne veulent pas [que j’appartienne au groupe], mais ça me fait remettre en question ma propre volonté d’être Québécois par rapport à “je veux être Canadien”. »

Des expériences vécues

« J’aimerais beaucoup me tourner vers le sentiment d’appartenance envers le Québec, mais on nous fait sentir qu’on n’y appartient pas. Alors, il faut se tourner ailleurs », explique d’ailleurs en entrevue Jana, une jeune musulmane. Le Devoir a choisi de ne pas publier son nom de famille, car la Montréalaise est encore mineure.

Pour elle, ce sont assurément les débats sur la laïcité qui ont entamé son sentiment d’appartenance : « Avant, je m’identifiais comme Québécoise, mais, avec les nouvelles lois, j’ai senti que ça a créé deux classes différentes : ceux qui peuvent réaliser leurs rêves et les autres, qui ne le peuvent pas. »

« Moi, je voulais devenir avocate pour défendre l’équité sociale, mais j’ai l’impression que je ne peux pas choisir cette carrière sans sacrifier ma religion », dit la jeune femme, qui porte le hidjab.

La Loi sur la laïcité de l’État, connue d’abord comme projet de loi 21, interdit le port de signes religieux chez les agents qui incarnent l’autorité de l’État, y compris les juges et les procureurs de la Couronne.

Jana pourrait exercer à titre d’avocate en pratique privée, reconnaît-elle, mais elle a l’impression que certaines portes lui sont déjà fermées avant même qu’elle entame des études de droit.

Pour Garine Papazian-Zohrabian, professeure de psychopédagogie à l’Université de Montréal et psychologue clinicienne, cette étude va dans le même sens que ce que d’autres travaux ont démontré : « les approches coercitives freinent le sentiment d’appartenance », a-t-elle déjà écrit sur plusieurs tribunes.

« Je vois aujourd’hui les conséquences de la loi 21 [Loi sur la laïcité de l’État] dans le milieu enseignant », dit Mme Papazian-Zohrabian. Elle voit avec grande déception les embauches de personnel non légalement qualifié dans les écoles, « alors qu’on prive nos élèves de bonnes enseignantes » parce qu’elles portent le voile.

« On pousse les gens à se recroqueviller sur eux-mêmes et à trouver une place uniquement dans leur communauté. Symboliquement, on ne peut plus parler d’intégration », dit-elle.

Mme Papazian-Zohrabian a émigré du Liban et elle est d’origine arménienne, « petite-fille de rescapés d’un génocide », donc à même de comprendre l’importance de l’identité, remarque-t-elle.

Les politiques et le discours sur l’immigration ont créé « une dynamique de plus en plus polarisée », selon la spécialiste. Beaucoup d’immigrants ont pourtant « choisi le Québec ou le Canada parce que c’est une société progressiste et une société de droit. Quand ils se sentent attaqués ici, ça crée de la détresse chez eux ».

Source: Le sentiment d’appartenance des immigrants au Québec s’effrite par rapport au Canada

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Denmark considering banning protests burning Quran and other religious texts

2023/08/01 Leave a comment

Hard to argue that book burning is a freedom of speech issue as there are other ways to express views than unnecessarily inflaming tensions (although some tensions will always be inflamed or politicized as the Satanic Verses and the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons illustrate):

The Danish foreign ministry said whilst protecting freedom of expression is crucial, such protests benefit extremists and pose a security threat.

Copenhagen is looking at legal means to intervene in some circumstances, including protests outside embassies.

Sweden’s prime minister also said work on a similar process has begun there.

Both Scandinavian countries have come under pressure in recent weeks, after authorities gave permission for a series of controversial protests where Islam’s holy book was destroyed, stoking diplomatic tensions with several Muslim-majority nations.

In its statement, Denmark’s foreign ministry said it wants to explore intervening in some protests where “other countries, cultures, and religions are being insulted, and where this could have significant negative consequences for Denmark” – including security concerns.

But the Danish government emphasised free speech was a fundamental value and any change must be done “within the framework of the constitutionally protected freedom of expression and in a manner that does not change the fact that freedom of expression in Denmark has very broad scope”.

The statement also specifically acknowledged the impact these controversial protests have had on Denmark’s international reputation, repeating the government’s earlier condemnation of burning religious texts.

These protests have reached a level where Denmark “is being viewed as a country that facilitates insult and denigration of the cultures, religions, and traditions of other countries” in many parts of the world, it added.

In a separate statement, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said a similar process was already underway and confirmed he had been in close contact with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen.

“We have also started to analyse the legal situation already… in order to consider measures to strengthen our national security and the security of Swedes in Sweden and around the world,” he wrote on Instagram.

Both statements followed several high-profile incidents where the Quran was burned or stamped on in recent weeks.

In June, an Iraqi Christian refugee living in Sweden, burned a copy of the religious text outside Stockholm’s central mosque.

The man was then given permission to destroy a Quran for a second time last week, which led to Sweden evacuating its embassy staff from Baghdad after the building was stormed and set fire to by protesters

Following this, last week two Danish far-right activists stamped on a Quran and set it alight in a tin foil tray next to an Iraqi flag on the ground outside Iraq’s embassy in Copenhagen.

Source: Denmark considering banning protests burning Quran and other religious texts

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with ,

Annual public service report to PM should prompt ‘serious conversation’ about bureaucracy’s future, says former PCO clerk Wernick

2023/08/01 Leave a comment

Civil service renewal is ‘fairly low down on the political radar screen,’ says bureaucracy expert Andrew Griffith. 

Begs the question, if nobody in Parliament is paying attention, what is the value of the report? Part of the problem, as in many (most?) such reports, is the lack of frank language on failures and challenges and general bureaucratic tone (been responsible for comparable reports).

My comments on the relative success of government in increasing representation among the equity groups part of the article:

Michael Wernick, the former clerk of the Privy Council Office, says the annual report on the public service of Canada, released on July 19, should serve as a “jumping-off point” for a “serious, more grown-up conversation about the state of the public service going forward,” especially since the government has lost traction and focus on public-sector capability, but he says the report is usually ignored by Parliament.

“You want to tell a positive story. It’s a rare opportunity to push back against the usual negative feedback loops where people only pay attention to things that go wrong, and highlight some of the hidden stories and what’s going on and tell us the bigger picture,” Wernick explained to The Hill Times after last week’s massive cabinet shuffle. “The risk is always getting it right—you want it to also be candid about where there were issues, and you want it to sort of set up a conversation about the state of the pubic service ideally.”

Anita Anand (Oakville, Ont.), who most recently served as defence minister, was appointed as Treasury Board president in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s (Papineau, Que.) cabinet shuffle on July 26. Her arrival into the role comes not long after John Hannaford’s appointment as Clerk of the Privy Council following Janice Charette’s retirement.

Charette officially ended her time in the role and in the public service on June 24, telling The Hill Times that “anything that’s on the prime minister’s desk is on my desk; anything that he’s dealing with, I’m dealing with.”

Wernick told The Hill Times that, during his time in the top job, he signed off on annual reports four times between 2016 and 2019.

Wernick said his point was not to be critical of the report, given that “it’s a difficult balancing point.”

The former top bureaucrat called it “frustrating” that Parliament passed a law requiring an annual report on the state of the public service “and then has never shown any interest in it.”

The government first introduced the annual report in 1992, a requirement under section 127 of the Public Service Employment Act, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

“I tabled four of them, and was never, ever asked to go to a parliamentary committee and discuss the report or the state of the public service,” said Wernick.

Wernick also said that there was nothing in the report about the service review which was alluded to a few years ago, and that digital government projects are “waiting in a queue.”

“And that’s where finance comes in—if you were going to be serious about public-sector capability, you’d have to spend money,” said Wernick. “You’d have to invest in training and leadership development, you’d have to put some money into it and buildings and equipment … it won’t come for free. And so far, this government has lost any sort of focus and traction on public-sector capability.”

“The idea of having a serious discussion at parliamentary committees about the public service would be a good start,” said Wernick, alluding to a Globe and Mail opinion article he penned earlier this year where he argued that the government “should work with Parliament to create a new Joint Committee of the House of Commons and Senate on the Public Service” as well as create a “permanent Better Government Fund in the care of the Treasury Board.”

“I’m not sure that the timing is great, which goes back to the cabinet shuffle, where we’re in this phase of the government where the hourglass sands are running out, there’s less than two years left, two budgets, maybe about 200 days of parliamentary time,” said Wernick. “The last two years of a mandate of a government that’s 10 points behind in the polls is probably not where you’re going to see bold ideas on the public sector.”

The disruptions caused by the pandemic were “enormous,” said Wernick, and the opportunities for some parts of the public service that hybrid work creates “are interesting.”

“Their promise in the strike settlement to add seniority to the algorithm for laying people off could be very relevant two years from now,” said Wernick. “If I was a younger public servant I’d be quite worried.”

Any return to the size of the public service when the Liberals took power in 2015 would involve tens of thousands of job losses, said Wernick. 

“Is this government going to try to tap the brakes in its last two years? I don’t know,” he said. 

But Wernick also noted that this government, at this point in its mandate, “wants to deliver stuff.”

“Climate change, green transition, hugely ambitious immigration numbers, housing, reconciliation, the defense policy review and implementing something out of that, the review of the foreign service—they’re going to run out of time in June of 2025, which is not so far away,” said Wernick. 

Data shows growth in public service, progress in diversity and inclusion

In terms of the diversity goals, Andrew Griffith, a former director general for Citizenship and Multiculturalism who keeps a close eye on public service survey results and reports, said that “virtually, for all visible minority groups, their relative share in promotions has increased.”

There has been significant growth in the size of the federal public service recently, with the report noting that the number of employees grew from 319,601 in March 2021 to 335,957 in March 2022.

The number of executives grew from 7,972 to 8,506 during that time period, with the number of deputy ministers increasing from 37 to 41. The number of associate deputy ministers fell slightly, from 39 in March 2021 to 36 a year later.

In the report’s “year ahead” section, Charette notes that the government’s agenda on diversity and inclusion “must be inclusive” and must advance commitments around reconciliation, accessibility, combating transphobia and better support for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.

Charette also writes that the government must continue to prioritize the recruitment and retention of persons with disabilities, and “ensure employees in religious minority communities feel safe and supported in their workplaces.”

Griffith told The Hill Times that “the overall pattern of the public service becoming more diverse with better representation is there, at both the executive level and non-executive level.”

Griffith also said that based on the data he sees and analyzes surrounding the bureaucracy, the visible minority category as a whole is doing better in the last six years than the non-visible minority community—which applies to both men and women.

According to the report, which outlines disaggregated employment equity representation and workforce availability, the number of women in the public service increased from 127,043 at the end of March 2021, to 132,299 one year later.

The number of Indigenous Peoples in the public service increased from 11,977 to 12,336 over the same time period, with the number of persons with disabilities increasing from 12,893 in March 2021 to 14,573 in March 2022.

In terms of visible minorities, the total increased from 43,122 to 47,728, with Black employees increasing from 8,754 to 9,809. Non-White Latin Americans and persons of mixed origin both saw increases of 0.1 per cent in the public service population.

Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and South Asian/East Indian employees also saw increases within the bureaucracy’s ranks, as well as Non-White West Asians, North Africans or Arabs, Southeast Asians, or other visible minority groups, according to the report.

At the executive level, the percentage of women increased from 52.3 per cent to 53.2 per cent, persons with disabilities increased 5.6 per cent to 6.5 per cent, and members of visible minorities increased from 12.4 per cent to 13 per cent.

Public service renewal ‘fairly low down on the political radar’

When asked about recent changes both at the top level of the public service with a new clerk, as well as a new Treasury Board president in Anand, Griffith said he thought “sometimes one reads a bit too much into these changes.”

“Public service renewal isn’t [something] that directly affects [most] Canadians,” said Griffith. “It’s fairly low down on the political radar screen—this is largely managed through the bureaucracy—there are checks and balances as there always are, but I don’t really think that any of these changes will drastically modify the path that the current clerk was on, and that likely the new clerk will have more important issues that take up his time.”

Wernick noted that the Liberals left Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne (Saint-Maurice-Champlain, Que.), Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland (University—Rosedale, Ont.) and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault (Laurier-Sainte-Marie, Que.) where they already were in cabinet, but “it doesn’t explain moving Anand out of defence, frankly, because now you’ve got to bring a new person in in the middle of a defence policy review.” 

Wernick also said going through the disruption of the pandemic and now trying to adapt in some places to hybrid work possibilities, there’s now a government “in the late stages, pedal to the metal, trying to deliver stuff.”

“So it’s going to be hard to pay attention to its actual capabilities,” said Wernick, who added that he agreed with what is flagged in the report in terms of organizational health, burnout, mental health, and diversity.

“But there’s not a lot in there about the basic capabilities of the public service,” said Wernick.

‘I know getting here has not always been easy,’ writes Charette on hybrid work

The report also highlights the shift in the past year towards a hybrid work model, a change that made headlines for months and raised the ire of many public servants both in mainstream media and on social media. 

“Once we were able to safely welcome more employees back into the workplace, I outlined my expectations for deputies, including that they encourage employees to test new hybrid work models, wrote Charette in the report. “The shift to a hybrid model was about putting our effectiveness first and making a change that would best enable us to support government and serve Canadians, while giving employees flexibility to support their well-being.”

Direction on the common hybrid work model was released in December 2022, which set out guidelines requiring that employees work on-site at least two to three days per week.

“I know getting here has not always been easy,” wrote Charette, noting that the public service is the largest employer in the country and is made up of hundreds of thousands of public servants in a wide range of roles across Canada and abroad.

Source: Annual public service report to PM should prompt ‘serious conversation’ about bureaucracy’s future, says former PCO clerk Wernick

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