Nakba exhibit at Canadian Museum for Human Rights to draw on Palestinian oral histories

2025/11/21 2 Comments

I don’t envy the curators preparing the exhibition and having to navigate the politics (see reaction from some Jewish organizations below). That being said, it is a legitimate exhibition for the museum and the oral story approach is likely the most appropriate:

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is launching a new exhibit examining the Nakba, a period beginning in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were displaced in the war over Israel’s creation.

Drawing on the oral histories of the Palestinian diaspora in Canada, the mixed-media display will open in June. It is set to remain a permanent part of the Winnipeg-based museum’s standing galleries for at least two years, chief executive officer Isha Khan told The Globe and Mail.

After years of protests and demonstrations outside the national museum demanding such an exhibit, advocates from several Jewish and Palestinian groups expressed elation about what they believe is a long overdue step toward public education. But at least two Canadian Jewish groups condemned the planned exhibit, stating that it undermines the legitimacy of Israeli statehood. One of them has withdrawn from future collaborations….

Source: Nakba exhibit at Canadian Museum for Human Rights to draw on Palestinian oral histories

Reaction from some Jewish organizations:

…The JHCWC also expressed concern the exhibit could overlook non-Jewish minorities who are Israeli citizen, including Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, Circassians and Samaritans – people who hold positions in the judiciary, parliament, health care and the military, and that their equal rights under Israeli law complicate common interpretations of the Nakba.

The centre notes previous exhibitions — including the Holocaust gallery — were organized with extensive consultation.

“I think what you’re seeing with the Jewish Heritage Centre is the manifestation of a fundamental breach of trust by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights,” says David Asper. “The factual, historical context of events surrounding the ‘Nakba’ are not just one story. In my father’s founding vision of the purpose of the Museum he never had a problem with the telling of the whole story, which includes the displacement and expulsion of over 800,000 Jews who were living in Arab countries and, perhaps most importantly, that a lot of what happened was triggered by the fact that many Arab countries declared war and tried to conquer and eliminate Israel in 1948.”…

Source: Canadian Museum for Human Rights has become ‘tool’ of one side of the Arab-Israeli story: David Asper

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Feds helped push through citizenship for English soccer player in time to join Canadian squad

2025/11/20 Leave a comment

So let me get this straight.

While Minister Diab was making the case this Monday for passing C-3 quickly to avoid the absence of legislation that “it will open it up so that citizenship by descent will have no limit, and that’s exactly what I think a lot of people don’t want,” the government was fast tracking citizenship for a soccer player who apparently did not meeting the substantial connection case of having a parent who met the 1,095 day residency requirement.

In other words, skipping a generation and taking advantage of the legislative vacuum.

Depending on your perspective, clever or hypocritical move (latter in my opinion):

He is not the first soccer player to fly a flag of convenience in the run up to the World Cup, nor is he the only foreign-born player on Canada’s national soccer team. 

But few will have left it so close to their first match for Canada to take the citizenship oath. 

The Canadian national soccer team’s newest recruit is Alfie Jones, a Bristol-born defender who plays for second-tier English team Middlesborough. 

On Monday he took the citizenship oath in time to play for Canada on Tuesday in a pre-World Cup friendly match against Venezuela. 

Jones’s application for Canadian citizenship – made possible because he had an Alberta-born grandmother – was pushed through with the help of a government minister and a senior public servant in time for Tuesday’s kick off. …

Source: Feds helped push through citizenship for English soccer player in time to join Canadian squad

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Ontario cancels fast-track immigration program for skilled trades

2025/11/20 Leave a comment

Sigh…. Will see if the minister responsible, Piccini, resigns or not:

Ontario has quietly suspended a fast-track immigration stream for skilled tradespeople and is cancelling all current applications to the stream, leaving candidates who were awaiting decisions in limbo − and at risk of losing their right to live and work in the province.

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) allows the province to recruit and retain foreign workers by granting permanent residency to those with in-demand skills, and has previously been touted as a critical means of filling labour shortages.

Qualified workers can be nominated by employers or invited by the province to apply based on their skill set. Last year, the province nominated about 4,100 candidates through its skilled worker stream − with the Labour Ministry describing the OINP as the “best tool the province has” to fill job gaps. The government has previously forecast that it will need 100,000 skilled tradespeople over the next decade to meet its infrastructure goals.

But the Labour Ministry’s oversight of the program has also attracted scrutiny from the province’s Auditor-General’s office, which last year identified weaknesses in detecting “integrity concerns.”

On Friday, an update posted to the OINP website said an internal review of the skilled trades initiative had “identified systemic misrepresentation and/or fraud,” prompting the Labour Ministry to suspend the stream.

That afternoon, candidates were notified by a director at the Labour Ministry that their applications had been terminated, according to a ministry e-mail obtained by The Globe and Mail.

Source: Ontario cancels fast-track immigration program for skilled trades

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Canadians distrust refugees more than other new arrivals, poll shows

2025/11/20 Leave a comment

Not unexpected. Assumption that immigrants already here are more sympathetic on any number of immigration and refugee issues is largely false, as in many cases immigrant opinions are similar to Canadian-born and in some cases, more negative given perception that some refugees are “queue jumpers:”

…Perhaps counterintuitively, trust in refugees was lower among respondents who identified themselves as immigrants (28 per cent) than non-immigrants (38 per cent). Trust for refugees was also lower among non-white respondents (26 per cent) than whites (39 per cent).

Immigrant respondents had only slightly more trust in other immigrants (47 per cent) than non-immigrants did (45 per cent).

On the survey question about trusting refugees: More men than women said they distrust refugees (49 per cent versus 36 per cent, with a higher percentage of women declining to answer). The youngest (ages 18 to 24) and the oldest (age 65 and over) tended to trust refugees the most, but, overall, age divisions didn’t show wide variation.

On the question about trusting immigrants, demographic patterns of respondents were similar: More men than women said they distrust immigrants (41 per cent versus 34 per cent, and, again, a higher percentage of women declined to answer). The youngest and oldest showed the highest levels of trust in immigrants.

Geographically, trust in refugees was lowest in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which are pooled together by the pollsters, at 31 per cent, and Ontario at 33 per cent; trust in refugees was highest in Quebec and Alberta, both at 42 per cent.

Trust in immigrants was lowest in Manitoba and Saskatchewan (37 per cent) and in Quebec (41 per cent), and highest in Atlantic Canada (53 per cent) and Alberta (50 per cent)….

Source: Canadians distrust refugees more than other new arrivals, poll shows

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Highly skilled immigrants are twice as likely to leave Canada, report shows

2025/11/20 Leave a comment

Makes sense, given the more educated have more mobility possibilities. But nevertheless highlights the retention issue:

The more educated an immigrant is, the more likely they are to leave Canada, a new report on immigration data and patterns suggests.

It comes as the federal immigration and health ministers testified on barriers to attracting immigrants to work in the health care sector on Tuesday.

New immigrants are leaving Canada “at near-record rates, with highly educated and highly skilled immigrants leaving Canada at twice the rate of those with less education and lower skills,” a new report by the Institute of Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada found.

The ICC releases an annual report which studies the causes of onward migration — or migration of people first into, then out of Canada using data from Statistics Canada.

The likelihood of leaving Canada goes up as the level of education increases, the report found….

Source: Highly skilled immigrants are twice as likely to leave Canada, report shows

Report link: https://forcitizenship.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Leaky-Bucket-2025-Nov.-17.pdf

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Lisée: Jungle identitaire

2025/11/20 Leave a comment

Interesting commentary regarding the latest report by the commissaire à la langue française, Benoît Dubreuil, Intégration à la nation québécoise:

…En comparaison, il est beaucoup plus agréable d’être entre immigrants ou avec des anglophones, dont la composition ethnique est plus diversifiée, dont la langue est plus facile, où les accents divers sont plus acceptés, et où la pression pour s’intégrer à une culture précise n’existe tout simplement pas.

Et c’est là qu’on trouve la spécificité du cas québécois. Dans le monde entier, les ados sont rustres, et l’intégration, difficile. En Allemagne, au Chili ou au Cambodge, il n’y a pas d’autre choix que celui de l’intégration à la langue et à la culture de la société d’accueil, même lorsqu’elle accueille mal. Ici, un autre univers est à portée de main, l’anglophone.

Dubreuil nous apprend qu’une fois l’enfer du secondaire traversé, les tensions s’atténuent au cégep et à l’université. La maturité des uns et des autres y est pour quelque chose. Mais ce passage a laissé des traces. Les enfants d’immigrants connaissent le français, mais l’utilisent moins que les immigrants de première génération. On est en présence d’une acquisition, puis d’une distanciation de l’expérience québécoise, à la fois présente, mais étrangère.

Le commissaire propose, pour juguler ce phénomène, un gigantesque chantier, multiforme, d’intégration. Sa créativité force l’admiration. On voudrait partager sa détermination et son volontarisme. Peut-être y arriverons-nous, après avoir digéré la douleur générée par ses constats.

Source: Jungle identitaire

….In comparison, it is much more pleasant to be among immigrants or with Anglophones, whose ethnic composition is more diverse, whose language is easier, where diverse accents are more accepted, and where the pressure to integrate into a specific culture simply does not exist.


And this is where we find the specificity of the Quebec case. All over the world, teenagers are rude, and integration is difficult. In Germany, Chile or Cambodia, there is no choice but to integrate into the language and culture of the host society, even when it is poorly welcomed. Here, another universe is at hand, the English-speaking.


Dubreuil tells us that once the high school hell is crossed, tensions ease at CEGEP and university. The maturity of each other has something to do with it. But this passage left traces. Immigrant children know French, but use it less than first-generation immigrants. We are in the presence of an acquisition, then a distancing from the Quebec experience, both present but foreign.


The commissioner proposes, to curb this phenomenon, a gigantic, multifaceted integration project. His creativity forces admiration. We would like to share his determination and voluntarism. Maybe we will get there, after digesting the pain generated by his observations.

Filed under Integration, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

C-3 Citizenship by Descent: Senate Report Observations

2025/11/19 Leave a comment

The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology has the honour to present its

As expected, sailed through without amendments. Observations focussed on inter country adoptees (more of an recognition and identify issue than a practical one, as adoptees would have to live in the province of adoption and thus meet the residency test) and the need for modernization of the Citizenship Act. No concern about the operational impact and the data gaps (unfortunately, as expected):

SECOND REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), has, in obedience to the order of reference of Thursday, November 6, 2025, examined the said bill and now reports the same without amendment but with certain observations, which are appended to this report.

Respectfully submitted,

ROSEMARY MOODIE

Chair

Observations to the second report of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (Bill C-3)

Bill C-3 represents meaningful progress in addressing injustices faced by many “Lost Canadians.” However, your Committee notes a continuing gap affecting some intercountry adoptees: children born abroad, adopted by Canadian parents living in Canada, and brought into the country through a rigorous and highly regulated adoption process governed by provincial/territorial laws and international obligations, including the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

Your Committee therefore encourages the Government of Canada to undertake further study and consider targeted legislative reforms to ensure that all intercountry adoptees are treated equivalently to Canadian-born adopted children with respect to citizenship acquisition and transmission.

Your Committee observes that the Citizenship Act has become increasingly complex and difficult for Canadians to understand. Given the many piecemeal amendments over decades, the Act would benefit from comprehensive modernization, including the adoption of plain-language drafting techniques.

Simplifying the Act would enhance public understanding, reduce administrative burdens, and ensure that Canadians can more easily know and exercise their citizenship rights and responsibilities.

Your Committee notes that Bill C-3 resolves many long-standing inequities relating to Lost Canadians but does not fully address all categories of affected persons.

Your Committee therefore encourages further study to identify remaining gaps and to support the development of future legislation that ensures all Canadians — whether by birth, adoption, or descent — are treated with fairness, consistency, and dignity.

Source: C-3 Citizenship by Descent: Senate Report Observations

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LILLEY: Time to end foreign flag-raising ceremonies at city halls across Canada

2025/11/19 1 Comment

Agree:

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has an idea that should be adopted at city halls across the country — end the practice of raising flags of other countries. It’s one thing for the federal government in Ottawa to follow protocol and fly the flag of a visiting foreign dignitary; that’s accepted and expected.

Municipalities, though, have no role in foreign affairs, and this practice, which likely started as a unifying measure, is now divisive, which is why Farkas says he wants to see it end.

“Calgary’s flag policy means any country recognized by Canada may have their flag flown at City Hall on their national day. But national flag-raisings are now creating division,” Farkas said last week.

Flag-raising policies now creating division, not unity

We’ve seen those divisions recently in attempts to get the raising of the Israeli flag cancelled at various city halls and now we’ve seen that with the Palestinian flag raising since Canada officially recognized a Palestinian State in September. Flag raisings over the past few days in cities like Mississauga and Toronto have been incredibly divisive and even involved attempted court injunctions.

Of note regarding the City of Calgary policy — and it appears similar for Toronto — we could be raising the flags of countries that we shouldn’t really be honouring all simply because the federal government recognizes the existence of that state.

City Council does not have legal authority to determine which countries Canada recognizes. Under our existing policy, any national flag request that meets the criteria must be considered equally,” he wrote.

Canadian cities recognizing countries with widespread human-rights abuses

By recognizing the Palestinian State, the Carney government is recognizing a state government in part, some would argue in whole, by a terrorist group. Hamas, which governs Gaza, is clearly a terrorist group and the Palestinian Authority, which is in charge of the West Bank, is an organization that doesn’t hold elections and is credibly accused of arbitrary arrest and torture, extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses.

It goes beyond just this conflict in the Middle East, though. Toronto has held flag raising ceremonies this year for several countries with questionable human rights records that we wouldn’t want to celebrate.

On Oct. 9, we raised the flag of Uganda at Toronto City Hall, a country where basic rights such as freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association are all curtailed and where homosexuality is punishable by death. This isn’t exactly the type of country that we should be celebrating with a ceremony at City Hall, the flag is a symbol of the government in charge and that government is repressive.

Similar complaints, though not as harsh, could be made against Angola. Their flag was raised on Nov. 12 at Toronto City Hall.

This past May 23, Calgary raised the flag of Eritrea, a country accused of widespread human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings and sexual violations, specifically in the Tigray region which is disputed with Ethiopia. Toronto raised Ethiopia’s flag on Sept. 11, despite their government facing many of the same accusations.

Both countries criminalize same-sex relations and yet here are two Canadian cities — likely more — celebrating and honouring these countries. Raising the flag that represents the regime in place does not honour the people, the diaspora living here, it is an honour to the repressive regime in place.

Honouring foreign regimes doesn’t represent local communities

Can you imagine seeing the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran flying at a government facility in Canada? It should never happen, but with these policies in place, it clearly could.

That’s why Calgary’s mayor wants to move a motion this week to end the practice.

It’s a good move; let’s hope it passes and then is replicated across the country.

Source: LILLEY: Time to end foreign flag-raising ceremonies at city halls across Canada

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Alberta tables bill to add citizenship mark, health-care numbers to driver’s licences

2025/11/19 Leave a comment

The post 9/11 enhanced drivers licences issued by some provinces included citizenship but were all discontinued by 2019. NEXUS has largely replaced the need. Alberta’s inclusion of citizenship markers will not, of course, be accepted by US authorities:

Alberta’s government has tabled legislation to add health-care numbers and mandatory citizenship markers to driver’s licences and identification cards.

The government had announced its plans to do so earlier this year, leading critics to say the province was creating privacy concerns rather than protecting against them. 

Critics at the time said someone’s citizenship status would become known in unnecessary situations, such as purchasing alcohol.

Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally told reporters Monday that having citizenship markers on driver’s licences and other forms of identification is only meant to streamline access to services.

“When you’re applying for future benefits from the government of Alberta, it’s going to make it easier for you because you’re not going to have to produce a birth certificate. It’s going to be on your driver’s licence,” said Nally.

“Let’s be clear, that’s what this is about. This is about making it easier for Albertans to access services.”

Nally, and Premier Danielle Smith, had previously said adding citizenship markers — which will read “CAN” — to licences and ID cards was also about preventing election fraud and routing out potentially fake health-care numbers, but the minister didn’t mention either concern on Monday….

Source: Alberta tables bill to add citizenship mark, health-care numbers to driver’s licences

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Savoie: If Canada wants to recapture the national ambition of the 1960s, it must seriously cut the bloat

2025/11/19 Leave a comment

Agree on need to focus on programs and whether or not they are making a significant difference in terms of concrete outcomes. Requires a government willing to expend political capital:

A more promising approach is to take a look at programs that have passed their best-before dates and scrutinize the growing number of departments and agencies. For one, Ottawa should be asking if we still need seven regional agencies. The federal government should try harder to stay in its lane and deal with its core responsibilities, such as national defence. It should also ask provinces to look after their constitutional responsibilities, thus avoiding costly duplications. 

Another place for cuts would be the Canada School of Public Service, which spends $94-million annually and, beyond its responsibility for second-language training, would be hard-pressed to show it has contributed to better management. France did away with its École Nationale d’Administration in 2021 and Britain shut down its National School of Government in 2012. The United States, meanwhile, has long rejected efforts to establish a Public Service Academy. 

There are many other government agencies that should be reviewed, particularly given Ottawa’s difficult fiscal situation. Parliament should also ask if it needs nine officers, when other Commonwealth parliaments make do with less; Australia, for example, has only four. Dealing with these questions would let the whale swim like it did in the 1960s. 

As is often the case, Ottawa has a well-honed capacity to define a new approach and new policies. Where it fails is in the implementation. The test will be not in announcing new projects, but in how Ottawa will declutter the machinery of government and empower those on the front line trying to make the approach work.

Source: If Canada wants to recapture the national ambition of the 1960s, it must seriously cut the bloat

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