Lisée: Bonne semaine pour la haine

2023/10/26 Leave a comment

On “useful idiots” and fanaticism:

Au moment où ces lignes étaient écrites, les missiles israéliens avaient déjà quintuplé la mise. En riposte aux actes barbares du Hamas contre 1000 civils et militaires israéliens, les bombes de l’État hébreu ont fait plus de 5000 victimes civiles, hommes, femmes et enfants agonisant sous les gravats. À ce point du récit, et alors que se réunissent les conditions du débordement du conflit du Liban au Yémen à l’Iran, l’exigence d’un cessez-le-feu immédiat, suivi d’une mise sous tutelle de Gaza par l’ONU, semble à mon humble avis la seule posture prudente et humaine possible.

Il n’est pas étonnant que, sur le globe, les passions s’enflamment. Que, parmi les pro-israéliens, on entende des appels à éradiquer le Hamas, quoi qu’il en coûte en victimes civiles. Que, chez les propalestiniens, on mette en cause l’existence même de l’État d’Israël.

Dans le tumulte, les idiots utiles s’expriment. Telle la lettre où 74 étudiants en droit (en droit !) de l’Université métropolitaine de Toronto affirment « être solidaires de la Palestine et de toutes les formes de résistance palestinienne », ce qui, par définition, n’exclut pas les techniques infanticides du Hamas. Deux associations étudiantes de l’Université York, à Toronto, ont diffusé un communiqué similaire, comme l’ont fait plusieurs groupes étudiants d’universités américaines.

L’outrance épistolaire juvénile est certes condamnable, mais ces exagérations tendent à s’estomper avec l’âge. Plus graves sont les paroles et les gestes des foules multigénérationnelles ces derniers jours. À Toronto, toujours, une manifestation propalestinienne d’un millier de personnes se tenait la semaine dernière devant un immeuble où avait lieu une assemblée pro-israélienne. Dans la vidéo de l’événement, on entend clairement quelqu’un crier au micro : « Que fait-on avec les Juifs ? » Et des manifestants répondre : « On leur coupe la tête. » À répétition.

En Australie, sur les marches du magnifique opéra de Sydney, autant de manifestants ont scandé un slogan qui optait pour une autre abjecte solution : « Gazez les Juifs. » Samedi dernier, à Montréal, des manifestants propalestiniens ont lancé crachats, roches et briques en direction de manifestants pro-israéliens. La police a procédé à 15 arrestations. À Amsterdam, tous tabous tombés, quelques manifestants ont fièrement brandi d’énormes drapeaux noirs du groupe État islamique.

Le plus étonnant est de ne pas voir des images de pacifistes, égarés dans ces manifs, fuyant à toutes jambes lorsqu’ils entendent des appels à l’éradication d’un peuple et d’une religion. Il est vrai qu’une autre religion est présente, puisque parmi les slogans on entend aussi régulièrement « Dieu est grand », la divinité en question étant, toujours, Allah. Dans plusieurs villes européennes, et à Toronto, certaines manifestations se transforment en prières musulmanes collectives, dans la rue, devant un poste diplomatique israélien. C’est l’utilisation politique de la prière.

Je n’ignore pas que des actes antimusulmans abjects ont été commis, ici comme ailleurs. Mais on ne voit pas, dans nos villes, de foules réclamer l’annihilation de tous les Arabes ou de tous les musulmans.

L’appel par le Hamas à une journée de « djihad mondial » s’est soldé par une poignée d’attentats en Europe. On peut penser que le nombre de djihadistes prêts à passer à l’acte fut faible. Mais on doit constater qu’ils disposent d’un écho favorable plus important qu’on ne pouvait l’espérer. Après que l’un d’eux a assassiné un enseignant français à Arras, une minute de silence fut organisée dans les écoles de l’Hexagone. Le ministère de l’Éducation a relevé 500 cas de perturbations, par des élèves, au moment du recueillement. Parmi eux, 183 élèves ont été suspendus pour « menaces à l’encontre d’enseignants » ou « apologie du terrorisme ».

Au lendemain de l’assassinat par un djihadiste de deux touristes suédois en Belgique, des élèves musulmans d’une école voisine ont demandé à leur professeur de faire une prière… pour le tueur. L’enseignant d’une autre école belge rapporte : « J’ai été choqué de voir que les élèves s’échangeaient entre eux des photos des personnes tuées […] Ils rigolaient. »

L’école doit être le lieu premier de socialisation, mais des élèves musulmans sont en contact permanent avec un autre univers, explique ce prof. « C’est via TikTok et d’autres sites qu’ils fabriquent leur islam, leur religion. Ils écoutent des prêcheurs sur Internet. La mosquée, elle est sur leur téléphone ! » Manifestement, ajoute-t-il, « certains élèves sont fanatisés par les réseaux sociaux ».

À la télé française, l’entrevue d’un ami du tueur d’Arras a levé le voile sur le type de discussion qui se tient dans ces milieux. « On avait les mêmes idéologies, dit-il, sauf pour aller tuer les gens, ça ne m’a jamais intéressé. Et puis, ce n’est pas normal, sauf dans une guerre sainte. » Sauf dans une guerre sainte. Bon à savoir.

J’insiste sur la distinction entre l’opinion outrancière, qui peut évoluer, et la conviction religieuse, qui est par nature fixée une fois pour toutes — sauf si on en sort —, car dite d’inspiration divine.

L’écrivain roumain Emil Cioran le résumait ainsi il y a un demi-siècle : « Le fanatisme est la mort de la conversation. On ne bavarde pas avec un candidat au martyre. Que dire à quelqu’un qui refuse de pénétrer vos raisons et qui, du moment que l’on ne s’incline pas devant les siennes, aimerait mieux périr que céder ? »

Source: Bonne semaine pour la haine

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with ,

Diversity and inclusion on campus after the Hamas attacks – Inside Higher Ed

2023/10/25 Leave a comment

Reflections worthy of note, particularly the question: “How can campuses sustain some semblance of civility, forbearance and open-mindedness in the face of deep political and ideological divides?”

No easy answer but the last few weeks have demonstrated the necessity:

As tensions on elite college campuses flare in the wake of the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, and as many students and faculty members take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many worry that the earlier talk about diversity, multiculturalism and inclusion has turned out to be a fraud.

It’s easy, at this fraught historical moment, to worry that tolerance and pluralism on campus are fraying and that antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of ethnic tribalism, stoked by ideologues, extremists and zealots, threaten to rip our campuses apart.

Every day seems to bring another account of students assaulted on a campus for their political views or their religious identity and of fliers and posters being ripped down. We even have reports of a professor at major university expressing “exhilaration” about the flaring violence in the Holy Land and another “ruminating about killing ‘zionist journalists who spread propaganda & misinformation.’”

Isn’t that what we mean by a hostile educational environment?

You don’t need to be Jewish to worry about the circulation of antisemitic tropes, memes and sentiments on campuses and social media. Meanwhile, many Muslim students feel that their concerns and viewpoints are downplayed, disdained or dismissed.

All this is especially shocking because campuses, in recent years, have placed such a high premium on diversity and multiculturalism and campus leaders have expressed such a strong commitment to facilitating “difficult dialogues.”

Much of the public conversation of what’s occurring on campus has been framed in terms of free speech, doxing and faculty members’ right to academic freedom. But I think there’s an even more pressing issue: How can campuses sustain some semblance of civility, forbearance and open-mindedness in the face of deep political and ideological divides?

I myself fear far less about the future of free speech on campus than whether all students will feel welcomed and supported when their political or religious views or identities or personal opinions differ from their classmates’. I have witnessed intellectual bullying, guilt-mongering and deliberate provocations within my own classrooms. Those problems aren’t simply a Fox News–fueled fantasy.

I will offer some suggestions about what campuses can and should do to support a more inclusive campus environment, but before I do, I’d like to take a few moments to discuss the broader issue of tolerance, assimilation and pluralism in American history.

This topic presents us with a paradox. On the one hand, this country has had a long history of nativism, xenophobia and discrimination against outsider groups, punctuated by rancorous and ongoing debates over immigration policy. On the other hand, it’s also the case that the United States has been more successful than almost any other society in absorbing and integrating immigrants. I think it’s indisputable that, for all its failings, by almost every measure, including interracial and interethnic marriage, this society has made genuine progress in becoming more inclusive.

This makes the apparent decline in mutual acceptance on campus all that much more worrisome.

During the 20th century, the United States was described, at various times, as:

  • A melting pot, where immigrant groups shed their distinctive identities and melt into a single, unified culture.
  • A salad bowl, a metaphor that suggests that the United States consists of distinct cultural groups that maintain a unique identity while co-existing side by side and contributing to the nation’s character.
  • A nation of nations, in which each group retains its autonomy but all are united under a shared national identity.
  • A tapestry, with ethnic group maintaining its own distinctive characteristics, yet woven together to create a vibrant mixture of languages, traditions, music, foods and art.
  • A kaleidoscope, as a continually shifting pattern of cultures that change and re-form into new patterns, emphasizing the dynamism of American cultural interactions.

There are those, like John Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, who described an American as a “new man” who is distinctively individualistic, self-reliant, pragmatic and hardworking. Free to pursue self-defined goals, this new man rejects the ideological zeal and fixed identities that had characterized the Old World.

Then there are those who stress acculturation, the process through which individuals and groups absorb and adopt elements of the larger society. This doesn’t necessarily mean they fully assimilate; they can certainly maintain aspects of their original culture. And yet the tendency is to gradually adopt the customs, values and norms of the dominant culture—as a result, their original cultural identity fades or disappears.

Then, too, there are those who view the pressures for conformity and homogeneity much more negatively. This perspective looks at how schools, employers, mass media and the legal and political systems work together to suppress diversity and impose a high degree of cultural and linguistic uniformity—even as they nominally celebrate multiculturalism in cultural expression, dress, food and religion.

Assimilationist pressures can come from within or without: from a desire for social acceptance and belonging or economic advancement. From intermarriage, peer pressure, media influences and expectations in school and the workplace. From secularization, mass culture and consumerism, which have also contributed to a homogenized American identity.

Assimilation is, of course, a spectrum, not a binary outcome. Immigrants can adopt certain elements of American culture while retaining aspects of their original culture. I’d argue that the willingness to accept hybrid cultural identities, practices and traditions that has made assimilation easier.

Nor is American culture static. It is dynamic, undergoing a continual process of adaptation and change. In fact, one of American society’s distinctive features is a certain kind of cultural fluidity, adaptability and absorbative capacity.

Unlike France, the Western European country that, historically, was the most open to immigration, but which was also the most insistent on assimilation, the United States has been far less resolute in demanding that immigrants acculturate and its consumer industries far more eager to incorporate elements from the newcomers’ cultures, from foodways to music. Of course, this process was less a matter of cultural exchange than of cultural appropriation. The fact that the company previously known as Dunkin’ Donuts is the country’s larger purvey of bagels is telling.

Among this society’s most striking paradoxes is that largely in the absence of intensive “Americanization” campaigns, immigrants’ offspring became, within two generations, largely indistinguishable in attitudes, dress, language and politics from native-born Americans. Whether this pattern will persist in an age when it is far easier than in the past to maintain ties with one’s culture of origin remains uncertain. But rates of intermarriage suggest that it very well might.

It’s essential to emphasize that acculturation and assimilation co-existed with persistent discrimination and inequalities along lines of skin color. The burgeoning literature on the historical, social, legal and cultural construction of whiteness; on white privilege in terms of law enforcement, job prospects and access to educational opportunities, loans and health care; and on the normalization and invisibility of whiteness (and heterosexuality and maleness) as an identity remind us that identities are both fluid and profoundly consequential.

Which brings me to the topic of today: What can colleges and universities do to create a more civil and inclusive campus environment? After all, they’ve already taken certain obvious steps. Senior leadership has expressed a clear commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and has asserted that these principles lie at the core of their institution’s mission and values. Campuses have mandated diversity training and established protocols for reporting instances of discrimination, harassment and bias.

In addition, institutions have incorporated multicultural perspectives into the curriculum, established cultural centers to support diverse students’ needs and promoted international food fairs and other activities and events to celebrate diversity. Many have acknowledged their historical ties to slavery, racism, colonialism, eugenics and other problematic aspects of their past and, as a result, have removed statues, renamed buildings and engaged in acts of restorative justice.

Nothing wrong with any of that. But, obviously, these steps haven’t been sufficient.

Not surprisingly, many wealthy donors want something more. As The New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat has written in a piece entitled “Why Big Money Can’t Easily Change Campus Politics,” many of these donors strongly object to the leftward ideological drift on elite campuses and the “administrative temporizing over the proper response to Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians and pro-Hamas statements by certain student groups.”

However, Douthat is right: their efforts to pressure college presidents and boards of regents are doomed to failure because, in the columnist’s words, an ideologically conformist, increasingly left-wing professoriate controls the curriculum, hiring and tenure and, he would no doubt add, an even a more staunchly progressive student life staff shapes the campus’s culture. The best donors can do, in Douthat’s opinion, is to:

  • Found or fund centers or institutes or programs or individual faculty members committed to heterodoxy and intellectual diversity and liberal ideals in some form.
  • Support smaller and poorer mission-driven institutions where their money might actually make a difference.
  • Give funds to student groups that do help those students who feel embattled and besieged and especially to student organizations that foster free debate.

Sounds good to me.

But let me add two other recommendations.

First, the college curriculum needs to treat diversity in a much more holistic, nuanced and comparative manner, especially at the lower-division level.

My students took U.S. history in fifth, eighth and 11th grades. I believe that they’d be better served by a course that looked systematically at various subcultures’ histories, traditions, values and challenges from a comparative vantage point and that looks at how these subcultures have interacted over time.

Wouldn’t undergraduates benefit from learning more, again from a comparative perspective, about these groups’ struggles for advancement and equality and the barriers they encountered?

Certainly, any course in comparative ethnic studies must avoid stereotyping, superficiality, tokenistic inclusivity and crude politicization. For some critiques of current approaches that lack the level of depth that I favor, see here and here. What we need instead is an approach that is truly analytical, fully inclusive and genuinely comparative.

Second, our campuses need to focus much more attention on local needs. I don’t believe there is a better way to foster a sense of community and connection on campus than by cultivating a shared commitment to addressing the problems that surround our institutions. Here’s how to do this:

  • Conduct a community-needs assessment. Identify the educational, environmental, health and other social problems and challenges that neighboring communities face.
  • Support research projects that address specific local challenges involving education, public health and environmental issues.
  • Increase engagement with local schools by offering tutoring programs, after-school activities, enrichment programs and mentorship opportunities.
  • Address local public health and social service issues and local environmental concerns by working with various local service providers.
  • Embed service-learning opportunities across the curriculum, for example, by awarding credit for community service in local schools, clinics and shelters or providing research and technology support to local organizations.
  • Host community events, forums, debates, workshops and theatrical events, art exhibitions and other performances on campus to foster constructive dialogue.
  • Expand continuing education opportunities tailored to the needs of the local community, including adult education classes, vocational training, English language courses and workshops on various topics, from computer literacy to financial planning, tailored to the needs of the community.
  • Research and acknowledge historical town-gown tensions and work toward reconciliation and trust-building.

Nothing I suggest here will address campus tensions over Middle East policy or the sense among many Jewish and Muslim students that their concerns are insufficiently acknowledged. But collaboration on issues of local concern might well advance cross-campus cooperation and communication, which are the essential underpinnings for positive interactions.

Steven Mintz is professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin.

Source: Diversity and inclusion on campus after the Hamas attacks – Inside Higher Ed

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Goldberg: With War in Israel, the Cancel Culture Debate Comes Full Circle

2023/10/25 Leave a comment

On the need for dialogue:

Nathan Thrall’s searing new book, “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama,” struck me as important even before the obscene massacres and mass kidnappings committed by Hamas this month lit the Middle East on fire. Today, with people still struggling to understand the contours of this deeply complicated conflict, the book seems essential.

An expanded version of Thrall’s widely praised 2021 New York Review of Books article of the same name, the book follows a Palestinian man named Abed Salama as he searches for his 5-year-old son after a deadly school bus crash in the West Bank, a search hindered by Israel’s restrictions on Palestinian movement. Thrall, the former director of the Arab-Israeli project at the International Crisis Group, uses his reported account of the Salama family’s tragedy to offer a panoramic look at life under Israel’s occupation. He is deeply concerned with Palestinian grief, but also writes rich portraits of Israelis, including Beber Vanunu, founder of a settlement in the West Bank, and Dany Tirza, architect of the separation wall that cuts through the territory.

The day before Hamas’s attack on Israel, DAWN, an organization founded by the slain Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi to promote democracy in the Middle East, published an interview with Thrall. In it, Thrall was asked about his depictions of Israelis, and whether he had qualms about “humanizing the occupation.”

“I was very glad to be asked that question,” Thrall told me. “Because that was absolutely the ambition of the book, to depict real people” rather than villains and saints.

Because I admire “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” so much, I agreed to moderate a talk with Thrall this Thursday in Brooklyn. But I’ve been shocked to learn that several of his other events, both in the United States and in Britain, have been canceled, either because of security fears or because it’s considered insensitive, right after the killings and abductions in Israel, to dwell on the plight of Palestinians.

“How does one promote a program on this subject to a largely Jewish audience when people on all sides are being bombed, killed and buried?” Andrea Grossman, whose Los Angeles nonprofit called off an event with Thrall, said in The Guardian. American Public Media, which distributes content for public radio stations nationwide, even pulled ads for the book. “We aim to avoid any perception of endorsing a specific perspective,” an APM spokesman said in an email, insisting that airing sponsorship spots for Thrall’s book would be “insensitive in light of the human tragedies unfolding.”

Thrall is not alone; in recent weeks several literary and cultural events by pro-Palestinian speakers or groups have been either scrapped or relocated. On Friday, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen was supposed to speak at 92NY, a major literary venue in Manhattan formerly known as the 92nd Street Y. That afternoon, however, the talk was abruptly called off, apparently because of an open letter Nguyen had signed about the “violence and destruction in Palestine,” as well as because of his past support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. (The talk ended up happening instead at a downtown bookstore.) The Boston Palestine Film Festival moved online, nixing its live screenings. A Hilton hotel in Houston canceled a conference of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, citing “security concerns.”

Part of me shudders to view the unfolding catastrophe in Israel and Gaza through the provincial lens of America’s cancel culture debate. In some ways, that debate has now come full circle, because pro-Palestinian voices were being censored long before the phrase “cancel culture” existed, one reason the left was unwise in recent years to prevaricate about the value of free speech. But if someone as evenhanded as Thrall now finds his talks being dropped, we’re in an especially repressive period. And in a time of war, particularly a war shrouded in fiercely competing narratives, free speech is more important than ever.

I don’t like the fact that the statement Nguyen signed gestured only vaguely at Hamas’s slaughter of Israeli civilians. In calling off his Friday evening appearance, 92NY, a Jewish organization, was playing by rules much of the left established, privileging sensitivity to traumatized communities ahead of the robust exchange of ideas. And supporters of Israel are hardly alone in creating a censorious atmosphere; particularly on college campuses, it is Zionists who feel silenced and intimidated. A professor at the University of California, Davis, is facing investigation by the university for a social media post calling for the targeting of “Zionist journalists,” which said, “They have houses with addresses, kids in school,” and included emojis of a knife, an ax and three drops of blood.

Nevertheless, a commitment to free speech, like a commitment to human rights, shouldn’t depend on others reciprocating; such commitments are worth trying to maintain even in the face of unfairness. “Art is one of the things that can keep our minds and hearts open, that can help us see beyond the hatred of war, that can make us understand that we cannot be divided into the human versus the inhuman because we are, all of us, human and inhuman at the same time,” Nguyen wrote on Instagram.

If the statement he signed didn’t live up to his own words’ generous spirit, 92NY would have been a good place to ask him why. The moments when dialogue is most fraught and bitter is when leaders most need to model it.

Source: With War in Israel, the Cancel Culture Debate Comes Full Circle

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As NH expands surveillance along the Canadian border, immigration and civil liberties activists push back

2023/10/25 Leave a comment

Of note. Would be helpful to have some numbers but a reminder of two way traffic across the border. Interesting no mention of expansion of the STCA to the entire border. As the article notes, seems more political than substantive:

New Hampshire’s plan to increase patrols and surveillance along its border with Canada is drawing praise from Republican politicians. But civil liberties and immigrants rights activists are raising alarm that an expansion of police powers comes despite a lack of data supporting claims there are migrants flowing across the state’s international boundary.

Gov. Chris Sununu and Attorney General John Formella released details of the Northern Border Alliance Task Force last week. The $1.4 million effort includes the purchase of unspecified equipment and increased police patrols within 25 miles of the border. State officials are also granting new powers to local and state police to temporarily detain suspected migrants who crossed the border without proper paperwork.

The move comes as U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they’ve seen a surge in crossings in the region, though neither federal nor state officials have shared hard numbers about the rate of crossings along New Hampshire’s portion of the international border.

Sebastian Fuentes, with the advocacy group Rights and Democracy, called the new initiative little more than “performative politics” in advance of next year’s election.

“Nobody has been able to show any numbers, or any kind of data, to validate those comments,” said Fuentes, who lives in Thornton.

The ACLU of New Hampshire is in an ongoing legal battle with Border Patrol over the release of state-level statistics on illegal crossings. On Friday, the civil liberties group also criticized the governor’s office and the New Hampshire Department of Safety for leaning into this new enforcement effort without showing hard evidence for why it’s needed.

Frank Knaack, the group’s policy director, characterized it as part of an effort to “to expand police power and surveillance within the Granite State under the guise of a ‘crisis’ on our border.”

The new task force was funded in the latest two-year state budget. The money, according to Formella, will cover the cost of an additional 10,000 hours of patrols by local and state police near the international border.

The Department of Justice is also laying out new rules to allow those officers to “cooperate with federal law enforcement officers in preventing and detecting crime and apprehending criminals, including those who have committed federal immigration-related crimes.” In practice, this could allow officers to temporarily detain suspected migrants who entered the country illegally and hand those people over to Border Patrol officials.

While state and federal officials haven’t specified how many border crossings are happening in New Hampshire, the Border Patrol has released statistics documenting a surge in interactions with suspected migrants across the region encompassing New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. Border agents have reported nearly 7,000 interactions in the region in the past 12 months, up from 1,095 encounters with suspected migrants during the 12 months prior, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Federal authorities have announced two suspected cases of human smuggling along the New Hampshire border in 2023. In one instance this July,10 people were detained in Pittsburg — nine people who allegedly entered the country illegally, and one man accused of facilitating their crossing. In September, four more people accused of illegal entry were arrested in Stewartstown, inside a vehicle that was first spotted in Vermont, according to court paperwork.

At a press conference announcing the new task force, Sununu criticized the Biden Administration and the state’s congressional delegation — all Democrats — for a lack of action on border security.

“We can’t stand by, and we won’t,” Sununu said. “We’re going to do whatever we can to make sure that we’re providing the necessary resources and security for our citizens.”

The northern border has become a regular stop for Republican politicians seeking elected office in recent months, including presidential and gubernatorial hopefuls. Earlier this summer, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen also met with local law enforcement during a trip to Pittsburg.

In a statement, Shaheen’s spokesperson rejected Sununu’s claims of inaction by Democrats, noting that she has been advocating for the issue dating back to her time as governor and has backed more funding for border patrol as a U.S. Senator.

Source: As NH expands surveillance along the Canadian border … – Maine Public

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Feds announce new panel to help address discrimination in the public service

2023/10/25 Leave a comment

We’ll see what they come up with:
The federal government has announced the assembly of a new panel that will support the design and creation of a new “restorative engagement program” to address discrimination, violence and harassment in the federal public service.President of the Treasury Board Anita Anand announced the creation of the panel of experts at a press conference Monday.

“We are working to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone can be their true self,” Anand said in a statement. “This panel of experts will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to help shape the new restorative engagement program. Their insights and contributions will be instrumental in shaping recommendations that support truth, healing, and respect.”

The panel comprises four recognized experts in clinical psychology, mediation, dispute resolution and restorative justice.They include Jude Mary Cénat, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Psychology and chair of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health, and Director of the Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience & Culture; Linda Crockett, founder of the Canadian Institute of Workplace Bullying Resources and the Canadian Institute of Workplace Harassment and Violence; Gayle Desmeules, founder and CEO of True Dialogue Inc., which provides customized training, facilitation, mediation and consulting services; and Robert Neron, a senior arbitrator and workplace investigator and former adjudicator for the Independent Assessment Process of the Indian Residential School Secretariat.

The announcement comes less than a week after a report by the auditor general of Canada, Karen Hogan, criticized federal departments and agencies for not doing enough to measure inequalities and improve the experiences of racialized employees in the workplace.

Analyzing six government departments and agencies between 2018 and 2022, Hogan’s office found that, while many initiatives have been launched to address inequities in the workplace, none have resulted in the “full removal of barriers and in the achievement of equity.” It highlighted that organizations have failed to effectively report on progress, identify barriers faced by staff and, at the manager level, take accountability for behavioural and cultural change.Among the organizations analyzed in the report, a higher percentage of visible minority respondents than non-visible minority respondents indicated that they were a victim of workplace discrimination. However, the surveys showed that racialized respondents were more likely to feel they couldn’t speak about racism in the workplace without fear of reprisal.

Joining the conference virtually, Crockett said the panel “cannot not” deal with the issues raised by the report, adding that employees’ fear of retaliation and reprisal is a critically important issue to address. At this stage, however, panelist Neron said it’s “premature” to determine the recommendations that will be made as engagement has not yet taken place.

The restorative engagement program is part of a broader government-wide strategy to identify, address and prevent harassment, discrimination and violence in the workplace, according to a news release shared by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS).“The goal of a restorative engagement program is to identify, through open dialogue, ways to address harm and promote healing for employees who have reported experiencing harassment, discrimination and violence in the workplace,” the release stated. “By placing individuals at the centre of the process and focusing on understanding the connections, root causes, circumstances, and impacts related to harm, the restorative engagement program will help drive cultural and systemic change within the public service.”

TBS said similar programs are being used “increasingly” across Canada, including by the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence.

Anand said the announcement of the program is not just an exercise in public relations. As a racialized person herself, she said it’s crucial the government continue to address discrimination in the public service.

While she is not a member of the panel, Anand said she believes the work happening across the government to develop programs supporting the better treatment of minorities and women who have been subject to sexual harassment can serve as valuable examples for the team.Participating online, Desmeules said Monday that an interdepartmental advisory working group had been established to support the program’s engagement process, made up of public servants from departments and locations across Canada who have experience in diversity, inclusion, harassment, discrimination, conflict management, labor relations, disability management and restorative justice, with the Canadian Armed Forces “sitting at that table.”

“We’re just capturing collective wisdom here,” Desmeules said.

In its 2023 budget, the federal government committed $6.9 million over two years to TBS to advance a restorative engagement program to “empower employees who have suffered harassment and discrimination, and to drive cultural change in the public service.” It said the program would allow employees to have a safe, confidential space to share experiences of harassment, discrimination and violence.

“According to the 2020 Public Service Employee Survey, certain federal public servants are more likely to experience harassment, racism, and discrimination in the workplace,” the budget stated. Those public servants include those identifying as Black, racialized, women, Indigenous, persons with disabilities or 2SLGBTQI+.

The budget outlined that $1.7 million would be sourced from existing departmental resources, with funding to also support a review of “the processes for addressing current and historical complaints of harassment, violence and discrimination.”

TBS said the panel’s work will come with a price tag of about $550,000.

The panel is expected to write a public report on its findings in early 2024, with recommendations on the design of the program to be submitted to the government in the spring.

Source: Feds announce new panel to help address discrimination in the public service

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Fraser: François Legault et les universités anglophones

2023/10/25 Leave a comment

Good column by former official languages commission Fraser:

Dans l’approche du gouvernement du Québec envers des institutions de la communauté anglophone, c’est difficile d’éviter l’impression qu’il y a une ignorance, et une méfiance, derrière ses gestes. L’attitude du premier ministre François Legault envers la communauté anglophone est un secret de polichinelle ; dans son mémoire, il a raconté ses batailles de rue avec les jeunes anglophones de l’Ouest-de-l’Île, et, dans son premier discours politique de candidat, il a rassuré les membres de l’association de comté du Parti québécois de sa hantise pour les Anglais.

M. egault a déjà parlé de la Coalition avenir Québec comme d’une version moderne de l’Union nationale de Maurice Duplessis, et les points de comparaison ne manquent pas. Comme Duplessis, il a créé son parti en regroupant nationalistes et conservateurs. Comme Duplessis, il accepte mal la critique, dénonçant le journaliste Aaron Derfel, de The Gazette, quand il a découvert les conditions invivables dans le CHSLD Herron.

Son caucus n’a que deux députés de l’île de Montréal, et un seul anglophone ; un miroir, 70 ans plus tard, de l’emprise électorale de Duplessis. (En fait, en 1954, Duplessis a gagné six sièges sur l’île de Montréal, trois fois plus que Legault en 2022.)

Cette hantise est parfois marquée par la peur. Dans sa campagne électorale de 2018, il a dit qu’il « s’est réconcilié avec le Canada », mais a exprimé la crainte que « nos petits-enfants ne parlent plus français » à cause de l’immigration. Pendant la même campagne, il a avoué qu’il croyait qu’un immigrant puisse devenir citoyen canadien en quelques mois, tandis que ça prend trois ans.

Comme réconciliation avec le Canada, on a déjà vu mieux. De toute évidence, les Canadiens sont perçus comme des étrangers. Des étrangers riches, par contre, qui peuvent financer les universités québécoises en payant presque six fois plus que les étudiants québécois pour s’inscrire aux universités québécoises, à McGill, à Concordia ou à Bishop’s. (Les étudiants arrivant de la France vont continuer de payer les mêmes frais de scolarité que les jeunes Québécois.)

Ce geste fait suite à d’autres qui révèlent une attitude négative envers la communauté anglophone, comme si cette communauté n’avait pas le droit de gérer ses propres institutions qet u’il n’existait que grâce à la bienveillance de la majorité francophone. Donc, le gouvernement a déjà annulé le financement pour l’expansion de Dawson College, a limité l’inscription dans les cégeps anglophones d’étudiants qui n’ont pas étudié en anglais et a imposé une exigence de trois cours en français pour les étudiants anglophones au cégep — ce qui chambarde la planification de crédits et l’organisation du personnel enseignant.

Mais tout cela n’était que des hors-d’oeuvre. Le plat principal a été annoncé la semaine passée. Au lieu de considérer les universités anglophones comme un actif pour le Québec, elles sont perçues par ce gouvernement comme un passif, comme une menace à la santé culturelle et linguistique de la majorité.

Au contraire, McGill est l’une des universités les plus respectées en Amérique du Nord et la seule université canadienne qui est bien connue aux États-Unis. Concordia est un peu le pendant anglophone de l’UQAM : c’est souvent l’université de la première génération qui poursuit des études postsecondaires. Et Bishop’s joue un rôle particulier comme petite université avec une culture innovatrice et intime.

On se plaît souvent à dire au Québec que la minorité anglophone est la mieux traitée au Canada. Mais il n’y a aucune province, sauf le Québec, qui a fait un effort systématique au cours des dernières décennies pour affaiblir les institutions de la minorité. En Ontario, on est en train de bâtir une nouvelle université francophone, l’Université de l’Ontario français, qui a accueilli sa première cohorte en septembre 2021. Au Manitoba, le collège St. Boniface est devenu l’Université Saint-Boniface. Au Nouveau-Brunswick, l’Université de Moncton a célébré cette année son 60e anniversaire.

Historiquement, le mécénat ne faisait pas partie de la tradition francophone au Québec. Dans son mémoire Mes grandes bibliothèques. Mes archives, mes mémoires le bibliothécaire et archiviste Guy Berthiaume raconte comment il a travaillé pour faire sa marque dans le domaine de campagnes de finance3ment pour les universités francophones québécoises. « La collecte de fonds professionnelle, systématique et assumée était, jusqu’au début des années 1980, absente des universités francophones et elle faisait l’objet d’encore de beaucoup de préjugés dans les milieux intellectuels », écrit-il.

Par contre les universités anglophones y travaillent depuis le début de leur existence. Il y a, et il y a toujours eu, un effort soutenu pour créer un sentiment d’appartenance et de communauté chez leurs diplômés.

Maintenant, elles paient le prix de leur succès. Au lieu d’être valorisées et respectées comme des pôles d’attraction nationaux et internationaux, elles sont traitées avec mépris, comme des vaches à lait pour le réseau universitaire. Quelle honte !

Source: François Legault et les universités anglophones

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Black feminists in defence of Sarah Jama and Palestinian human rights

2023/10/24 Leave a comment

Remarkable demonstration of willful blindness and ideological blinkers. Not a word about the Israelis slaughtered by Hamas. And how can self-styled feminists be supportive of the Islamist and anti-feminist Hamas?

Most other commentary criticizing the Israeli government’s response to the Hamas attacks acknowledges the brutality of the Hamas killings and kidnappings.

Even the equally biased message from TMU law students (since taken down), “condemned Hamas’ recent war crimes killing 1300 Israelis” but then reverts to form by stating “Israel is therefore responsible for all loss of life in Palestine.”

That three academics at UofT failed to do so acknowledge Hamas’s brutality, will legitimately be used as an example of the “rot” in academia.

Sad:

We are Black women scholars writing with the strongest concern for the possible censure of MPP Sarah Jama at Queen’s Park. As Black women, we live with the enduring legacies of slavery and colonialism. We feel a responsibility, like many Black women before us, to oppose all forms of racist dehumanization.

We are outraged that Sarah Jama, a Black woman and Hamilton Centre MPP, may be silenced — unable to speak in the provincial Legislature — for the duration of her elected term. Jama has been targeted by Premier Doug Ford, and reprimanded by her own party leadership, in response to a statement in which she called for a de-escalation of violence.

The attack on Jama comes amidst deepening government repression of those who speak out in defence of Palestinian life.

Jill Dunlop, minister of Colleges and Universities, has named and condemned university students and faculty who authored or signed statements, even those who have defended Palestinian human rights on social media, calling for them to be disciplined for “supporting the atrocities that have been committed against innocent civilians.”

Are Palestinian civilians not also “innocent?”

We mourn the loss of all civilian life and we also stand with those who speak out in support of Palestinian human rights and against government efforts to intimidate and silence dissenting voices.

The siege on Gaza is a humanitarian disaster, described by UN experts as “collective punishment” and “ethnic cleansing”. Since Oct. 7 and of writing this article on Friday, the Israeli army has dropped over 6,000 bombs in Gaza, killing 3,478 people, with one Palestinian child killed every 15 minutes. Israel has launched 136 attacks on health-care services across Palestine, killing 28 medical staff. Over a million Palestinians have been displaced, with corridors for humanitarian aid closed. Human Rights Watch has documented the use of white phosphorus, a chemical that “burns at temperatures hot enough to melt metal.”

On Oct. 9, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced “a complete siege … no electricity, no water, no food, no fuel,” saying, “We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly.” In a since-deleted tweet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the siege on Gaza as a “struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle.” These statements justify the ongoing attack on Gaza, constituting what Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal deems “an intent to commit genocide.”

Black people too have often been likened to animals and relegated to the realm of darkness and “the jungle.” Sarah Jama’s words emerge from a long tradition of Black women standing in support of Palestinian human rights and against apartheid, from Toni Morrison to Audre Lorde, Angela Y. Davis, June Jordan and Dionne Brand.

On our campus and in our movements, we work from Indigenous lands and across geographic and socially erected borders, with scholars of all backgrounds — including Palestinian, Indigenous and Jewish — to stand for justice and against dehumanization. Black feminists have not only the right, but the duty, to take a stand against genocide, militarism, and occupation, and to challenge the Canadian government’s complicity in it, whether in the current attack on Gaza, its initial failure to condemn South African apartheid or its leading role in the destabilization of Haiti.

Nobody should be censored or disciplined for condemning what the UN and Amnesty International have documented for decades: that Palestinians have been subjected to Israeli military occupation and apartheid and that Gaza has been under siege since 2007.

We cannot allow Sarah Jama to be silenced and we will not be silent or complicit with genocide. Our voices echo a global majority that supports an immediate ceasefire, as well as an end to the conditions that have been at the devastating heart of this issue: an end to apartheid and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Robyn Maynard, Nisrin Elamin and Alissa Trotz are professors at the University of Toronto.

Source: Black feminists in defence of Sarah Jama and Palestinian human rights

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Asylum claims jump at Canadian airports after Ottawa eases some visitor visa requirements

2023/10/24 Leave a comment

“Fix” one problem by creating another! Waiving the sufficient funds requirements and the demonstration of intent to leave requirement may have appeared a good idea at the time but did nobody at the official or political level not expect an increase in claimants?

Canada is experiencing a surge of asylum claims being made at domestic airports after a contentious move by the federal government to waive certain requirements for thousands of visitor visa applicants.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has processed more than 26,000 asylum claimants at airports through September this year, an increase of 54 per cent from last year’s total, according to figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). While the numbers have been rising since 2022, the trend accelerated in the spring.

In March, the federal government closed Roxham Road, a popular route into Quebec for those seeking asylum in Canada. The closure has forced would-be claimants to find new entry points.

But there was another, less-publicized move, that likely contributed to the trend. Earlier this year, Ottawa waived some eligibility requirements for visitor visa applicants – in particular, those individuals no longer have to prove they have sufficient funds to stay in Canada or demonstrate they will leave the country when their visas expire. The policy went into effect on Feb. 28 and lasts through the end of 2023.

The Globe and Mail reported in January that IRCC was considering such a move, after the newspaper leaked a government document that outlined ways to reduce a significant volume of visa applications.

The memo said that not all applicants for temporary resident visas, or TRVs, would be “genuine visitors,” and that in waiving eligibility requirements for those individuals, it could lead to an additional 8,600 asylum claims.

Still, Ottawa pressed ahead with the plan – although it didn’t disclose anything publicly until June, four months after the policy took effect. Radio-Canada was first to report on the change.

“The percentage of people coming to Canada on a TRV and claiming asylum remains low compared to the overall volume of TRVs the department typically issues each year,” IRCC spokesperson Mary Rose Sabater said in a statement. “In the current reality of increasing global migration, Canada, like many other countries, is experiencing a rise in the number of people claiming asylum.”

Many people connected to the immigration system, including lawyers and government employees, have criticized Ottawa’s approach to expediting the processing of applications. They say the immigration department is not performing its due diligence in screening all visitors, while also putting stress on the refugee system, which was already struggling to accommodate a rush of people seeking protection in Canada.

The change “makes our immigration system seem unreliable,” said Zeynab Ziaie Moayyed, an immigration lawyer in Toronto. It’s “a short-sighted way to reduce that backlog, but creates all kinds of other problems.”

At times last year, there were more than 2.6 million applications in IRCC’s inventories, including for visitor visas, work and study permits and permanent residency. As of Aug. 31, there were 2.2 million applications in the queue.

The IRCC memo, which dates to December, said waiving eligibility requirements would apply to roughly 450,000 TRV applications in the system.

The document said the stockpile of applications was “eroding the public’s trust” in the department and its ability to manage migration. Hopeful immigrants and visitors often complain that it can take years for the government to render a decision on their files.

“The accumulated visitor visa inventory is limiting Canada’s attractiveness for tourists and business persons, in addition to keeping families separated,” the government said on a webpage that announced the policy change. “Facilitating the processing of applications currently in the inventory by streamlining eligibility requirements will position Canada for a clean start and a return to pre-pandemic processing times, thereby ensuring our international competitiveness moving forward.”

The measure applies to visitor visa applications that were in the system by Jan. 16, coinciding with the date of The Globe’s story on the policies under consideration.

The government also waived a requirement – the need for foreign nationals to establish that they will leave the country by the end of their authorized stays – for those seeking “super visas,” which allow parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens or permanent residents to visit the country for five years at a time.

Despite the exemptions, prospective visitors are still subject to other screening procedures, such as those ensuring they aren’t a known threat to national security.

In a statement, the CBSA said it has seen an increase in the number of asylum claimants in recent weeks at airports, including Montréal–Trudeau International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport. The agency said the claimants were mainly from Mexico, India, Kenya, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Uganda.

Federal data show that a majority of asylum claims made at airports occur in Quebec. Eric Forest, a spokesperson for Trudeau International Airport, said it is “not suited to receive a large number of asylum seekers daily nor should it be its mandate.”

The IRCC memo outlined the pros and cons of using “aggressive measures” to reduce its inventory of visa applications, which it described as a crisis situation. Among the drawbacks, there would be “increased pressure” on the asylum system, including for the CBSA, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, hotels and airlines.

As of June 30, there were more than 103,000 refugee protection claims pending at the IRB, an increase of 47 per cent over six months.

Ms. Ziaie Moayyed questioned why IRCC would waive some requirements when it already has methods to process applications in bulk.

“They could have used the technology tools they have to process those applications,” she said. “It wouldn’t have created this really bad precedent that Canada will, at some point, if pushed, allow a large number of applications to go through without any eligibility assessment.”

Source: Asylum claims jump at Canadian airports after Ottawa eases some visitor visa requirements

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Ottawa prepares for evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon; could be largest civilian evacuation in its history

2023/10/24 Leave a comment

Likely repeat of the 2006 evacuation, which revealed that many evacuees had minimal to no current connections to Canada, with many returning to Lebanon once the crisis was over. Like that evacuation, the sense of entitlement among evacuees prompted questions about “Canadians of convenience” and resulted in the government changing the Citizenship Act retention provisions to a first generation cut-off.

Hopefully, the government will apply the same approach as with Israel, military flights to Cyprus, with evacuees responsible for any flights back to Canada.

Former Ambassador to Lebanon at the time, Louis de Lorimier, makes the sensible point: “If the prior notice to leave is given sufficiently before the actual problem occurs, then government should not pay for that.”

Have attached Australian analysis of their evacuation, showing a reasonable breakdown of those only entitled to travel to Cyprus, given lack of recent Australian residency, and those with recent Australian residency:

Canada is preparing for what could prove to be the biggest civilian evacuation in its history, one that is raising questions about the country’s obligations to its overseas passport holders before it has even begun.

Tens of thousands of Canadian citizens live in Lebanon, where fear of a looming war between the powerful militant group Hezbollah and Israel – in the wake of its war with Hamas – has driven airlines to cancel flights and some embassies to begin evacuating staff and diplomats.

The Canadian government, like others, has issued increasingly strong warnings against travel to Lebanon, and has urged those already in the country to leave while commercial travel is available.

At the same time, Canada’s military and diplomats have begun intensive preparation for an evacuation whose necessity has yet to be determined – but which could become its largest in history, a title currently held by the last Lebanon evacuation, in 2006. More than 14,500 Canadians in Lebanon have registered with the government, although the total number of Canadians in the country is believed to be several times that.

The Canadian Armed Forces has now stationed dozens of people in the eastern Mediterranean, including at a command and control centre in Cyprus, according to a person with knowledge of the planning operation. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the individual because they are not authorized to speak publicly.

The Forces did not immediately respond to a Globe request for comment Saturday.

Canada and other countries have spent 15 years attending exercises in Cyprus to prepare for a new crisis in the eastern Mediterranean.

Ottawa is already using a CC-150 Polaris aircraft in the region. It seats roughly 150 and has been used to fly more than 1,500 Canadians from Tel Aviv to Athens. It could be redirected to Lebanon, if airports there remain open, the person said.

If war does break out in Lebanon, it’s not clear that an airlift will be possible. The Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport is situated in a Hezbollah-controlled area of the city. In 2006, it was among the first Israeli targets during a 34-day war that prompted the Canadian evacuation of 14,370 people taken by sea from Lebanon.

Similar plans are under way today, with Ottawa examining options for passenger vessels, including cruise ships, that could be chartered for evacuation. Capacity on those ships could be shared with other Western countries, the source said, emphasizing that Canada’s preparations are precautionary, and no decision has been taken to begin an evacuation.

While skirmishes between Lebanese militants and the Israeli military have grown more intense in the past two weeks, they remain contained to the border area.

The number of Canadian citizens in Lebanon today is believed to be roughly equal to what it was in 2006, when 39,100 registered as present in the country.

Then, the Canadian government chartered 61 flights to bring evacuees to Canada, in addition to four military flights. (Even the prime minister’s aircraft was put into service, bringing back evacuees after a visit by Stephen Harper to Paris).

That evacuation cost Canada $94-million. It’s not clear who would pay if an evacuation becomes necessary this year.

Ottawa has received quotes of at least $1,000 per person for sea transport alone from Lebanon to Cyprus, according to a person who has been involved in those discussions. The Globe is not identifying that person because they are not authorized to discuss commercial details.

From there it is not clear how evacuees would return to Canada; Air Canada does not maintain scheduled service to Cyprus. The airline did not respond to a request for comment.

The question of who should pay, however, is likely to prove controversial. In 2006, at least nine in 10 evacuees were dual-nationals, some of whom “never lived in Canada, they never paid taxes,” said Louis de Lorimier, who was ambassador to Lebanon from 2005 to 2008.

Canada’s engagement in an evacuation is extensive, Mr. de Lorimier said. In 2006, members of Canada’s elite special forces, Joint Task Force 2, “were driving around the country trying to find Canadians,” he said.

This time, the Canadian government has offered clear advance warning. The latest travel advice says “consular services during an active conflict, including evacuation of citizens, may be limited,” and counsels: “you should consider leaving by commercial means if you can do so safely.”

Mr. de Lorimier questions whether it’s reasonable for taxpayers to bail out those who fail to heed such advice.

“If the prior notice to leave is given sufficiently before the actual problem occurs, then government should not pay for that,” Mr. de Lorimier said.

Canadians living in Lebanon have already begun to argue the opposite – not merely that Canada should pay for an evacuation, but that it should give financial assistance to people once they arrive.

At a meeting in the Lebanese city of Tripoli this week, the most pressing question was “will the Canadian government help us? Because we can’t help ourselves if we were to leave,” said Tarek Kamali, whose father is a warden, an informal Canadian consular representative.

Lebanon remains in the grip of a lengthy financial and economic crisis. Most people have lost their life savings in collapsed banks. They simply don’t have the means to survive in Canada, Mr. Kamali said. He suggested a program of resettlement assistance for six months that could be repaid in time.

“As a Canadian citizen, I feel that it’s owed to me,” he said.

Failing government help, Canadians may take their chances staying in Lebanon, he said.

Ottawa already came under heavy criticism for the chaotic 2006 exodus that was overseen by an insufficient number of government officials posted abroad. That evacuation prompted a review by a Senate committee, which delivered its report in 2007.

“Contingency planning and overall preparation of Canadian missions abroad, logistical or otherwise must be strengthened,” the report said.

“I think we’ve learned a lot in the ensuing years,” said Peter Boehm, who was a senior Global Affairs Canada civil servant involved in that earlier evacuation.

Mr. Boehm, who was appointed to the Senate in 2018, said in an interview this week that Canada cannot rely on military assets the way larger countries such as the United States can.

That means Ottawa must co-operate with other middle powers instead of trying to outbid them for vessels, he said. “We found ourselves in 2006 competing for ships and boats out of north Cyprus,” he said. “We were trying to ink contracts with ships that could pick up our citizens.”

Mr. Boehm said that the Canadian Armed Forces has since acquired huge Globemaster cargo planes that give the military a better capacity to ferry goods and people around the world. Global Affairs has also created a flying squad of diplomats to bolster capacity in times of crisis.

But he added that no amount of preplanning can ensure that an evacuation effort will go as smoothly as everyone involved would like. “You can’t turn aircraft inventory around on a dime,” he said.

Source: Ottawa prepares for evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon; could be largest civilian evacuation in its history

Lessons from Australia: The Lebanon experience

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Federal court rules Canadian study permit refusal based on prior poor academic performance is unreasonable

2023/10/24 Leave a comment

Correct in terms of the academic assessment more the role of the education institution than immigration officers. Blind of course to the reality that many institutions like Niagara grant acceptance more on the basis of financial interests than academic performance. More “visa mills” than anything else:

The Federal Court of Canada has found that an applicant’s study permitrefusal based on past poor academic performance and “inconsistent” academic goals was unjustified, and therefore the application was entitled to judicial review.

In 2021, the applicant, a citizen of India, received a letter of acceptance to enter a full-time graduate program studying International Business Management at Niagara College in Toronto. With his letter of acceptance, the applicant submitted a study permit and temporary residence permit application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

A few months later, the applicant received a letter notifying him that his study permit was refused. The officer stated that the two grounds for refusal were low previous academic performance and inconsistent educational goals.

In particular, the officer found that the applicant had low average grades in his core subjects of 40% to 59% from his transcripts from the University of Mumbai. Based on this information, the officer was not satisfied that the applicant had demonstrated the academic proficiency required to successfully complete the study program in Canada.

With respect to the “inconsistency” of the applicants’ educational goals, the officer noted that the applicant initially applied to Data Analytics for Business and was refused, and now applied to an International Business Management. The officer claimed that these educational goals in Canada were not consistent from one application to another and the applicant provided no explanation for this inconsistency.

The court held that the officer’s findings with respect to his previous academic performance lacked justification and transparency. In particular, the officer failed to connect the dots between the applicant’s previous academic history and the likelihood of success in his intended program of study. The court is not in the position to assume that low grades in one area of study means that the applicant cannot excel in or complete a program in another area of study.

The court cited a similar case, Patel v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), in which the judge remarked: “one can complete a program successfully without necessarily excelling in it. And many of the factors that can determine academic success are dynamic, not static”.

Further, Niagara College was clearly satisfied that the applicant had the necessary qualification to complete the program and to make “an important contribution” to the college.

Regarding the consistency of the applicant’s educational goals, the immigration officer failed to provide sufficient details concerning how a previous application to study Data Analytics for Business, meant that the Applicant’s educational goals were “inconsistent”. The applicant provided a letter explaining his rationale for choosing the International Business program. In this context, especially without further justification from the officer, it is unclear how the officer decided that the two applications demonstrated “inconsistent” educational goals.

The implication of this case is that poor academic performance in a prior academic program does not dictate an applicant’s ability to successfully complete another program, nor should it preclude an applicant from obtaining a study permit. In addition, an applicant may seek to pursue different study programs in Canada, as long as they provide rationale or an explanation for their choice.

Source: Federal court rules Canadian study permit refusal based on prior poor academic performance is unreasonable

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