Ottawa declassifies more details from Rodal report on Nazi war criminals in Canada

2024/02/05 Leave a comment

Of note:

As justice minister in the late 1960s, Pierre Trudeau opposed revoking the citizenship of a naturalized Canadian suspected of murdering 5,128 Jews in Latvia during the Second World War, over concerns about legality and social cohesion, long-redacted memos released on Thursday show.

…The previously redacted sections of Ms. Rodal’s report explore, among other cases, the case of F, from Latvia, a suspected firing-squad captain. He had been convicted in absentia by the Soviet Union. A 1965 memo by the legal division of External Affairs observed that the Soviet Union had requested his extradition to embarrass the Canadian government, but that at the same time, Canada had no reason to doubt the truth of the accusations. If true, the memo says, F was “an ardent Nazi lackey, not only cooperating actively with the occupying German forces but actually serving their Jewish and Gypsy extermination squads.” The memo said Canada had denied requests for extradition in at least four cases.

When the Canadian Jewish Congress asked in 1966 for a re-examination of the legal possibilities for action, a meeting across government departments was held. Two ideas for addressing war criminals were rejected: the revocation of citizenship for failing to disclose details of their past, and therefore not being of “good character” as required in citizenship applications; and retroactive legislation to allow for trials in Canada. There was a caveat: If a major war criminal such as Martin Bormann, who was once suspected of being in Canada, turned up, retroactive laws might be considered.

Mr. Trudeau later wrote, in a memo to Paul Martin Sr., who was secretary of state for external affairs, that nothing in Canadian law suggests a citizenship application is “in the nature of a confessional, requiring the applicant to disclose all prior conduct.”

On the subject of F, the alleged firing squad captain, Mr. Trudeau added that while anxiety in the Jewish community was understandable, “it would be most ill-advised for the government to undertake this venture, which would involve publicly accusing a Canadian citizen of having committed crimes in Latvia in respect of which he has been convicted, in absentia, in Russia.” Such a move, Mr. Trudeau said in a separate memo, could suggest widespread revocations of citizenship ahead.

…..Mr. Matas said Mr. Trudeau has since been proven wrong on his legal concerns, as the courts have allowed the revocation of citizenship for intentional non-disclosure.

Source: Ottawa declassifies more details from Rodal report on Nazi war criminals in Canada

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Why are ‘golden visa’ schemes being scrapped?

2024/01/26 Leave a comment

Good overview:

Golden visas and golden passports have attracted attention in recent years, as some countries attempt to encourage wealthy foreigners to park their money in return for residency or citizenship.

The tiny Caribbean island of Dominica, for example, receives more money from the sale of citizenship at $100,000 (€91,650) a pop than it does from taxes, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month.

The island attracts many wealthy Chinese, Russian and Iranian nationals, among others, who often face difficulties when crossing borders. They now benefit from the perks of being a Dominica passport holder, including 90-day, visa-free travel to the European Union.

No surprise! — VIP visas attract corruption

More than 60 countries operate golden visa or golden passport schemes, including several EU nations. But concern is growing that the programs are being abused by organized crime syndicates and corrupt officials. That prompted the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, to call on member states last year to stop selling them. 

Ireland, Cyprus and the Netherlands have already cut their VIP visa schemes, while Portugal reformed its program in October. All EU states tightened their visa rules for Russian and Belarusian nationals in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

On the other side of the world, Australia this week pulled the plug on its program, the significant investor visas. Launched in 2012, applicants had to invest at least A$5 million ($3.3 million/€4.58 million) in the country to gain residency. According to the federal government, at least 85% of successful applications were from Chinese nationals, and the scheme had not had the desired economic effect. Instead, it had attracted many corrupt officials. 

“[These] programs inherently appeal to corrupt officials and criminals. An additional passport or residence permit can come in handy if you’re on the run from authorities,” Eka Rostomashvili, campaigns lead at the anti-corruption group Transparency International, told DW.

Rostomashvili said that rather than putting in place strict due diligence measures, many countries have been “too tolerant” and have “recklessly welcomed dubious characters and their tainted money.”

More visas offered by Global South nations

While many headlines on the issue have focused on EU states, the biggest golden visa and passport schemes are in the Global South — countries like Malaysia, Panama, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, said Kristin Surak, professor of political sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

“The UAE accepts 50,000 people per year on its golden visa program — it’s massive,” Surak, who is the author of the book “The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires,” told DW. That compares to 30,000 people approved over a decade for residency in Portugal, the most popular scheme within the EU.

Transparency International has repeatedly complained about how secretive many governments remain about their VIP visa schemes. Some don’t expect applicants to spend any time in the country. Sometimes the application criteria will include a property purchase or a donation to the state, rather than investments that could bolster the economy.

Cyprus gave citizenship to known Malaysian fraudster

Rostomashvili gave the example of Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, who was able to buy a golden passport for Cyprus despite the negative publicity surrounding his involvement in the 1MDB corruption, bribery and money laundering affair. The scandal, which first came to light in 2015, impacted Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad). It’s often cumbersome for countries to revoke visas and passports when wrongdoing is uncovered, she added.

“It took Cyprus more than three years to strip Low of his citizenship because he reportedly fought back through his lawyers.”

Instances of nefarious actors, who take advantage of VIP schemes and shortcuts to citizenship, are often played up by the media, which likes to contrast them with regular immigrants who often face long waits and arduous application processes to gain residency. But in most cases, those applying for golden visas are not involved in crime. They’re just trying to give themselves an exit option from their home country.

How Chinese, Russians — even Americans — are hedging their bets

“In the vast majority of cases, people are trying to hedge their bets against an authoritarian regime or an uncertain future,” said Surak, citing the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and the 2016 failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Surak cited the huge increase in US citizens looking for exit options, partly due to the divisive politics of the Trump-Biden era. Americans currently make up the largest number of applications for Portugal’s golden visa program.

“If you’re going to carry out some sort of criminal activity or money laundering, there are other, cheaper ways than through golden visas,” she added, noting that Poland is currently investigating how 250,000 regular work visas were issued in Africa and Asia over the past three years in exchange for cash.

Malta and Hungary are currently standing firm against EU pressure to end their golden visa schemes. Brussels has launched legal action against Malta for offering citizenship for around €1 million. 

Hungary had rolled back its program but will restart it later this year. Applicants will be required to purchase property, buy shares in local property funds or make a charitable donation of at least €1 million into a public trust that supports local universities.

Rostomashvili from Transparency International said countries need to be asking: “‘Are these programs bringing positive socioeconomic impacts to our society?’ Usually, the opposite is the case.”

Source: Why are ‘golden visa’ schemes being scrapped?

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President Zelensky proposes constitutional amendment to introduce dual citizenship – JURIST

2024/01/25 Leave a comment

Of note, partially driven by the need for more soldiers:

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, extended thanks to Ukrainians abroad for their support during Russia’s invasion and proposed constitutional amendments to allow dual citizenship.

The video was shared in commemoration of Ukraine’s Unity Day, observed annually on January 22. This day signifies the merging of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic into a single, independent nation in 1919. The Unification Act of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR) was signed to mark the beginning of the nation.

The president expressed gratitude to Ukrainians living abroad for their efforts in “collecting and delivering” essential aid to the country during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskiy announced his intention to introduce a draft law encompassing extensive legislative changes, including provisions for multiple citizenship in Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine. The proposed law aims to grant citizenship to ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants globally, with the exception of individuals from hostile nations. Zelenskiy emphasized that many citizens had been compelled to leave their homeland amid emigration waves, and the proposed amendments would provide them the opportunity to become Ukrainian citizens, fostering a sense of attachment to the country.

Dual citizenship is the status whereby an individual is acknowledged as a citizen of two or more countries in accordance with the respective laws of those nations. However, the Constitution of Ukraine, specified in Article 4, currently permits only a single national citizenship. The proposal for allowing multiple citizenship was also suggested by Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, during his address to the World Congress of Ukraine. In his speech, he highlighted the importance of introducing multiple citizenship as a means to forward the development of a global community.

Source: President Zelensky proposes constitutional amendment to introduce dual citizenship – JURIST

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The Economist: Germany strikes a brave new deal on immigration

2024/01/24 Leave a comment

Significant change:

Germany’s debate over migration sometimes seems divorced from reality. The country’s low birth rate and shrinking workforce imply a pressing need to import manpower. Much political talk, however, is concerned with how to keep immigrants away. The anti-immigration right is surging in opinion polls, and even otherwise liberal folk are increasingly prone to saying that “certain kinds” of immigrants are alien to the national Leitkultur, a fuzzy concept of Germanness.

Yet the past week has seen a turn. Earlier this month German media exposed the proceedings of a private conclave of hard-right politicians at a posh hotel near Berlin in November, where the participants discussed expelling millions of aliens. That scandal woke up the dormant left, which has organised a series of big “anti-fascist” demonstrations in cities across the country. On January 20th some 250,000 Germans took to the streets in one of their biggest mass protests this century.

Meanwhile, the governing centre-left coalition, made up of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, has injected some good sense into the immigration debate. On January 18th and 19th it passed two immigration bills in the Bundestag. The first, pleasing to conservatives, will make it easier to expel asylum-seekers with dubious cases, whose numbers have soared since the end of the pandemic. The second, more significant law will make it easier for legitimate immigrants to gain German nationality.

The reasons for the latter law are obvious, though German media has devoted strangely little space to discussing them. An extraordinary 13.4m of Germany’s 84m residents do not hold citizenship. More than 5m of these have lived in the country longer than ten years. In some cities the proportion is far higher: 45% of the population of Offenbach, a big satellite of Frankfurt, are foreigners, as well as a third of Munich’s and a quarter of Berlin’s. This number has swollen rapidly in the past decade, partly because more immigrants have arrived, but also because Germany has failed to naturalise those already here.

Germany’s “naturalisation rate”—the percentage of resident foreigners granted nationality every year—was just 1.2% in 2021, well behind the European average of 2.2%. Sweden did far better at 10%. The number Germany naturalised rose from 130,000 in 2021 to 168,000 in 2022, the highest in two decades. But the backlog still grew, because of a range of obstacles: restrictions on dual nationality, long residency requirements, tough tests to prove language skills and gainful employment, and a clogged bureaucracy.

On average, Turkish immigrants who acquire German citizenship have already been in the country for 24 years. Small wonder that nearly half of Germany’s 3m immigrants of Turkish background—the largest immigrant group—remain non-citizens. Their case is special. Among the hundreds of thousands of Turkish Gastarbeiter (guest workers) who arrived in the 1960s and 1970s, many assumed they would return to Turkey and so did not apply to become German. Yet with hard-right pundits wagging fingers at the alleged failure of Turkish immigrants to integrate, Germany’s failure to welcome them deserved scrutiny too.

The new law should help address the citizenship backlog. It shortens the residency requirement for most applicants from eight to five years, which is in line with other countries that compete with Germany to attract talent, such as France and America. In special cases the wait can now be as short as three years. Children who are born in Germany with at least one parent who has lived in Germany for five years will automatically become citizens. Dual citizenship is now generally allowed. New citizens will have to promise to uphold democratic freedoms and to accept Germany’s “special historical responsibility” for Nazism and the need to protect Jewish life.

Some 5m resident non-Germans are eu citizens who already enjoy nearly all the rights of natives, and so may not see the need to add another nationality. Of the remaining 8m foreigners, including around 1m Ukrainian refugees, it is unclear how many will now rush to acquire a German passport. It is also unclear how capably the understaffed and underfunded bureaucracy that handles naturalisation, much of it managed by local governments, will adapt to the new rules.

Some estimates suggest that 2m or more Germans could be added to electoral rolls in the next few years. There will probably not be enough of them to strongly affect the next national election in autumn 2025. Nevertheless, the far-right Alternative for Germany party attacked the new law as a “coup d’état through a forced restructuring of voter demographics”. Whomever newly minted Germans vote for, it is hard to argue with two points. Without immigration, Germany’s population would already be in steep decline and its economy in jeopardy. And if Germans fail to make immigrants welcome, they risk creating precisely what the hard right fears: a huge pool of disenfranchised, disgruntled aliens in their midst. ■

Source: Germany strikes a brave new deal on immigration

And in related German news, consideration being given to allowing foreign citizens to serve in the army:

A proposal to allow foreign citizens to serve in the German army, known as the Bundeswehr, could be extended to Europeans in countries outside of the EU.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had initially put forward the idea of welcoming non-Germans to enlist in order to combat a drastic shortage of personnel.

In addition to Pistorius from the Social Democrats, the idea has also received support from lawmakers belonging to one of its two coalition partners, the FDP, plus the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

However, questions remain about how such a plan would be implemented.

Free Democratic Party (FDP) member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who chairs the German parliament’s defense committee, told DW that she can envision opening up the German army to candidates from across the continent.

She said candidates could initially come from the EU as well as countries like the United Kingdom, a former EU member, as well as neutral Switzerland. But there is also scope beyond these countries.

“I think that Europe also needs to be considered further, namely those who may live in European states but which do not yet belong to the European Union, but which may well be in accession negotiations,” Strack-Zimmermann said in an interview with DW’s Nina Haase.

“I don’t want to tie it down like that, because it has to be legally scrutinized,” she added.

Source: Germany weighs allowing foreign citizens into the army – DW – 01/22/2024 – DW (English)

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Feds won’t appeal landmark #citizenship ruling for ‘Lost Canadians’

2024/01/23 Leave a comment

sigh….

Will see how the government intends to meet the required change, whether through the short-cut of S-245 or a separate bill that would follow established parliamentary committee hearings:

The federal government will not appeal a court ruling that found part of Canada’s Citizenship Act to be unconstitutional.

Last month, an Ontario Superior Court justice found the federal government violated Charter rights with its “second-generation cut-off” rule, which denies automatic citizenship to children born abroad if their Canadian parents were also born abroad.

In an interview with CBC News Sunday, lawyer Sujit Choudhry confirmed federal government representatives informed him last week that there would be no appeal.

Ottawa had 30 days to appeal the ruling — a deadline that passed on Thursday.

“My clients are relieved. It’s been a long, hard fight,” said Choudhry, who is representing families affected by the law.

Choudhry filed a constitutional challenge in December 2021, suing the federal government for denying his clients the right to transmit their citizenship to their foreign-born offspring.

Critics have long said the law creates two tiers of citizenship, creating different rules for Canadians depending on whether they were born abroad.

In her December ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice Jasmine Akbarali agreed, writing that foreign-born Canadians born abroad hold “a lesser class of citizenship because, unlike Canadian-born citizens, they are unable to pass on Canadian citizenship by descent to their children born abroad.”

The case is lauded as a win for up to 200,000 “Lost Canadians” — groups of people not considered citizens because of gaps or contested interpretations of citizenship law.

The second-generation cut-off was created in 2009 as part of a crackdown by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government on Canadian citizens who lived permanently outside of the country. The move came in response to an $85-million evacuation of 15,000 Lebanese Canadians stranded in Beirut during the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

In her ruling, Akbarali noted public anxiety over the Beirut evacuation, but wrote “the highest the evidence goes is to show that some people were concerned about it… there is no evidence to demonstrate that there are citizens without a connection to Canada, nor that if any such citizens exist, that their existence or citizenship creates any kind of problem.”

Federal government must act

The federal government has six months to repeal the second-generation cutoff in the law — a move that will require either fresh legislation, or potentially the passage of a bill already being debated.

Senate Bill S-245 was amended in committee to remove the second-generation cut-off rule and replace it with a “substantial connections test” to pass on citizenship to the children of foreign-born Canadians who were born abroad.

In her ruling, Akbarali described S-245 as a “head start” for Parliamentarians to amend the Citizenship Act law to make it fully constitutional within six months.

How the federal government will respond is unclear. The office of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Minister Marc Miller declined to comment.

The court also ordered the federal government to grant citizenship to the four foreign-born children of three Canadian families involved in the case. Choudhry says they received certifications of their citizenship last week.

“They’re beyond elated,” he said.

Source: Feds won’t appeal landmark citizenship ruling for ‘Lost Canadians’

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Birth tourism showing post-pandemic rebound in B.C.

2024/01/20 Leave a comment

Expands on my analysis of the data on non-resident births from CIHI, with comments by others in excerpt below:

….Since there was more significant media coverage on the matter prior to the pandemic, Griffith notes the federal government has not done anything to curb the issue, despite public debate, while B.C. Minister of Health Adrian Dix has dismissed concerns about problems such as Canadian mothers being diverted from hospitals such as Richmond.

Griffith says, “given the current and planned increases in immigration, it is highly unlikely that the government will act as the numbers are a rounding error compared to overall immigration of 500,000 by 2025.”

But to Griffith, stopping the practice is more a matter of principle.

“I still think it’s important on principle and for the value of citizenship; it’s one of those things that can irritate, with people going around the system, taking advantage of the system,” said Griffith, who believes amendments to the Citizenship Act — requiring one parent to be a citizen or permanent resident to grant the baby citizenship — are warranted.

Several polls on the topic show significant support for amendments. In 2019, Angus Reid Institute, for example, reported “two-thirds (64%) say a child born to parents who are in this country on tourist visas should not be granted Canadian citizenship, and six in ten (60%) say changes to Canada’s citizenship laws are necessary to discourage birth tourism.”

Some critics of proposed changes contend people are unfairly targeting disadvantaged foreign women.

University of Carleton associate law professor Megan Gaucher was provided $223,328 from the federal government in June 2021 to research “how constructions of foreignness undermine the longstanding assumption that formal legal citizenship is an uncontested condition for membership to the Canadian state and explore how political and public discourse around birth tourism ultimately reproduces settler-colonial imaginaries of ‘good’ familial citizens.”

Gaucher says proposed measures “risk being driven by polarizing narratives about borders and citizenship rather than by evidence.”

Griffith has contested such views, noting birth tourists are “not disadvantaged women; they are people who have money to travel here and pay all the related expenses.”

In B.C., refugees and temporary foreign workers would not be categorized as self-paying births. And figures in B.C. also do not count international students, who are covered by the province’s Medical Services Plan. Hence, the “non-resident self-pay” numbers are a more accurate depiction of the practice, Griffith notes.

Conversely, others such as Michael Juneau-Katsuya, CSIS’s former chief of the Asia-Pacific, have shared contrasting opinions on the emerging phenomenon.

Juneau-Katsuya told Glacier Media he sees birth tourism as a national security threat. He suggests the People’s Republic of China may document and monitor returning children and utilize them as agents of the communist state should they return to Canada as adults.

Still, others have expressed concerns that there may be a cumulative impact on returning citizens who may utilize Canada’s social safety nets and reap benefits of citizenship without investing time in the country. Those concerns are in addition to the added stress birth tourism places on the health-care system.

Source: Birth tourism showing post-pandemic rebound in B.C.

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Douglas Todd: Ottawa insider warns about immigrant-investor schemes – Vancouver Sun

2024/01/20 Leave a comment

Wise warning (disclosure: I am friends of some of those quoted):

An adviser within Canada’s immigration department is warning about the dangers of entry programs that favour entrepreneurs, given the failure of earlier initiatives.

The internal cautions come at the same time the immigration department, which has been under fire from top bank economists for damaging the economy by bringing in a record 1.25 million permanent and temporary residents in a year, is expanding another program that gives preference to would-be entrepreneurs.

The internal government memo, obtained by Vancouver lawyer Richard Kurland under an access-to-information request, reveals how an adviser to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) warned that a variety of earlier immigrant-business programs suffered widespread abuse — resulting in a trivial number of new businesses being opened in Canada, and other problems.

The defunct schemes that targeted wealthy foreign nationals, which the correspondents generally refer to as “business-class programs,” opened the gates to a flood of foreign capital moving into Canadian housing, says the adviser. That raised prices, especially in cities such as Vancouver and Toronto. In addition, the internal email thread alerts decision makers to the way many entrepreneur immigrants ended up paying low amounts of income tax.

The in-house memo comes to light in the same month the Canadian Press reported the IRCC was internally warned two years ago that increasing immigration levels would harm housing affordability and services. A Nanos poll also finds support for migration has in less than a year plunged 20 percentage points, with 53 per cent now wanting fewer immigrants.

The group email shared by top immigration department officials, titled “The strange story of Vancouver,” reveals just how badly things went with the earlier schemes, specifically the longstanding immigrant-investor and entrepreneur programs, which were poorly monitored.

The email thread shows that senior officials in March of last year were working “under the radar” to expand similar business-class schemes, particularly the so-called Start-Up Visa (SUV) program, to welcome more would-be entrepreneurs into the country who have the “potential” to start a new business.

However, when the directors sought advice from Daniel Hiebert, a former UBC geography professor who is now working in the department’s strategic planning section, he said the earlier programs led to only 15 per cent of business-class immigrants actually starting a business.

“Ouch,” Hiebert says in the email, explaining how most of the business-class newcomers failed to start a new company even though their status as permanent residents was supposedly contingent on it.

The Conservatives disbanded the immigrant investor and entrepreneur programs in 2014, openly saying the people who came in through them were generally not having a long-term positive impact on the country, not bringing in significant investment capital for business, had low ability in Canada’s official languages, were tending not to stay in the country, and were paying far lower taxes than the average skilled worker.

Even many of those entrepreneurs who did begin a business through the old program dropped it after two years, said Hiebert. “They started businesses to meet requirements and then later let them go.”

Hiebert said, as far as he knows, not one of those entrepreneur-class immigrants ever had their permanent resident status revoked.

Furthermore, Hiebert explained how many of those business-class immigrants who bought expensive houses in the city tended to pay low mortgages and low income taxes.

“This is still the case,” Hiebert wrote. “The story is that many of the residents of these areas came through business-class programs with the intent to retire and live a comfortable lifestyle.”

After initially transferring their money out of their country of origin, typically somewhere in East Asia, Hiebert wrote, most purchased a house “along with a Mercedes, Audi or whatever. And then life is lived quite simply, on a small budget and with little owing in terms of income tax. The kids get to go to UBC or SFU while paying domestic fees, which is a big bonus.”

Hiebert concludes his March, 2023, memo by saying, “I think it’s time to review the economic outcomes of the Start-Up Visa program and I suspect they will show more of the same.”

At one point in the email thread, Umit Kiziltan, director general of the IRCC, said the “burning questions” that Hiebert raised required the “outmost (sic) attention” while the department evaluates whether to expand the Start-Up Visa program and others aimed at wealthy immigrants.

Also included in the thread are Maggie Pastorek, director of policy, and James McNamee, senior director in the economic immigration branch.

The group email includes a discussion of a study covered in a Postmedia article from 2022, which shows how UBC business professor Thomas Davidoff and others discovered the owners of Greater Vancouver homes with a median value of $3.7 million pay income taxes of just $15,800 — which is exceedingly low for North American cities.

“Most luxury homes in Greater Vancouver appear to be purchased with wealth derived from sources other than earnings taxed in Canada,” said Davidoff’s study, which confirmed earlier research by Statistics Canada and Hiebert himself.

Several years ago, StatCan and Hiebert found the average value of a detached house bought by more than 4,400 millionaire immigrants who came to Metro Vancouver under the investor program was $3.2 million. That compared to an average of $1.5 million for a Canadian-born owner.

While working at UBC, Hiebert’s studies also found a correlation between neighbourhoods with large foreign-born populations and neighbourhoods that appear to have unusually low taxable incomes, despite their inflated housing prices, such as Richmond and Vancouver’s west side.

Based on the documents provided in response to an access-to-information request by Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, it is not clear how the internal discussion affected later decisions the Liberal government made about its Start-Up Visa program

Last year, however, Ottawa scaled up the annual intake of the Start-Up Visa program from 2022, when it offered 1,000 spots. The program’s intake rose to 3,500 last year and is set to bring in 5,000 this year and 6,000 in 2025.

Immigration department officials did not respond by deadline.

Source: Douglas Todd: Ottawa insider warns about immigrant-investor schemes

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Tasha Kheiriddin: Trudeau frittered away a good immigration policy for the sake of Liberal votes – National Post

2024/01/18 Leave a comment

Discounts the flawed policy rationale of the Barton commission recommendations but of course, political considerations also played a role. And, as we saw during the Kenney years, the liberals cannot take these voters for granted:

Immigrants are also grateful to the party that bring them in. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau learned this from his father. Pierre Elliott Trudeau took credit for the citizenship of millions of Canadians, even though many had come to Canada under previous governments. Why? Because they took their oath under his watch. And when it came to elections, the immigrant communities of the day — Italians, Greeks, Haitians, Vietnamese — tended to vote Liberal.

The implications of Trudeau Jr.’s replication of this policy are dire. Studies show that they are turning Canadians against immigration: even 62 per cent of current immigrants think we’re letting in too many people. They are impoverishing Canadians, both current and newcomer, according to the bank study. And they are also helping fuel Quebec separatism, as francophones look with alarm at rising immigrant populations in the Rest-Of-Canada. By the end of the century, Quebec risks becoming a bit player in Confederation, with only 15 per cent of its population.

This cannot continue. Instead of flooding the country with newcomers, the government needs to boost domestic productivity. That’s a harder fix — and one that won’t give them more votes. But then again, if Canadians can’t afford a decent life, the Liberals may not get their votes either.

Source: Tasha Kheiriddin: Trudeau frittered away a good immigration policy for the sake of Liberal votes – National Post

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Immigration rules that jeopardized Russian activist’s citizenship bid need fixing, experts say – CBC.ca

2024/01/15 Leave a comment

Would be nice to know if this is an isolated case or part of a broader pattern. Could likely be addressed through an operational bulletin:

….While her supporters applauded the eventual outcome, experts and advocates — including a Russian opposition politician convicted under the same law — say Canada must clarify its immigration rules to avoid making the same mistake again.

“This is a shocking case. It’s a clear miscarriage of justice,” said Matthew Light, and associate professor of criminology and European studies at the University of Toronto, in an interview before Miller’s intervention.

“I can only assume it arose through a very basic misunderstanding of the nature of the Russian political system and the law in question, which is … a blatant attempt to silence opposition to the war in Ukraine.”

Light said the law has had a “dramatic” effect in Russia, where thousands have been arrested for allegedly discrediting the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Now, Light said, the Kremlin appears to be taking aim at Russians who have fled.

“I think the fact that the sentence that was handed down in this [case] was so extreme indicates that the Russian government sees it as important to them to send a message to Russian citizens abroad that they can be found and that they can be in trouble with their [adopted country’s] government if they speak out against the war.”

Light believes the intent of the Russian law is “perfectly clear” and said it’s astounding that Canadian immigration officials failed to recognize it for what it is.

“The part about this case that’s so unbelievable is that anybody in the Canadian government would believe that this is a proper law,” he said, likening it to a Canadian citizen being imprisoned for criticizing the war in Afghanistan.

“It’s really that simple. This is somebody who’s criticizing a policy of their government, in this case the invasion of Ukraine, and being punished for that.”

Wesley Wark, senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and an expert on national security and intelligence issues, called Kartasheva’s case extraordinary for its “sheer absurdity.”

He was also interviewed before the minister’s intervention.

“It’s really a kind of Kafkaesque situation that this person has been thrust in,” said Wark, who attempted to intervene with senior government officials on Kartasheva’s behalf and said her predicament reminded him of another case in which he was involved.

He said Russia might even seize upon the gaffe for its own propaganda purposes.

“In a broader perspective, it does bring … the conduct of the Canadian government into disrepute,” Wark said. “On every level — in terms of international relations, in terms of application of the law, in terms of what I call bureaucratic turpitude, reputation impact on the individual in question — it’s just so wrong.”

Wark suspects Kartasheva’s application became bogged down on the desk of a junior official who was operating strictly by the book, but said that doesn’t make the government’s handling of it any less egregious.

“The very idea that we would even for a moment contemplate looking for an equivalent to a Russian criminal sanction that is politically motivated and designed to stamp out dissent … just strikes me as absurd,” he said.

Source: Immigration rules that jeopardized Russian activist’s citizenship bid need fixing, experts say – CBC.ca

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Teenage surfing star granted Canadian citizenship, now sets her sights on Olympics – The Globe and Mail

2024/01/15 Leave a comment

Unclear whether this is a one-off decision or signals repeal of first generation cut-off. From the reporting, weak connection to Canada, one that appears to be more elite athlete driven and that she was reportedly searching for different citizenship options to allow her to compete in the olympics. Unclear why she didn’t compete with the American team:

…Canada’s citizenship laws are complex, with amendments changing the rules in 2009 and 2015. But essentially Bill C-37 in 2009 ended the extension of citizenship to second-generations born abroad.

In an October letter explaining its decision not to grant a “discretionary grant of citizenship,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says Brooks did not meet the requirements.

“The application is refused on the basis that the applicant is not stateless, has not experienced special or unusual hardship or provided services of an exceptional value to Canada which warrants a discretionary grant of Canadian citizenship,” the letter stated.

Source: Teenage surfing star granted Canadian citizenship, now sets her sights on Olympics – The Globe and Mail

Source: Chris Selley: An elite surfer finally gets rightful Canadian citizenship. Other ‘lost Canadians’ keep waiting

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