How do Canadian officials detect plagiarized refugee claims?

2025/08/08 Leave a comment

Reasonable use of AI IMO:

A failed refugee claimant came to Amandeep Singh in May for help after he was refused because his claim was “nearly word for word” identical to others before the refugee board.

While the Edmonton-based immigration consultant had heard for a long time that some claimants and their counsel have plagiarized claims to game the system, what struck him was what tool the refugee board and immigration officials use to flag these cases, which he says seems to have happened more often.

“I wouldn’t say this (plagiarism) is something new,” said Singh, who did not take on that client because he didn’t believe the man had a case. “It shows to me that officials are actually using artificial intelligence, so it is easier for them to look at multiple cases at the same time to see if the information in a claim matches with other asylum applications.”

While the refugee board denies the use of AI in its claim processing, the Immigration Department and the border agency — bodies that determine if a foreign national is eligible to seek asylum in Canada and which can intervene in refugee hearings — are less clear on how they identify these cases. Generally, officials deem similar claims as a potential indicator of fraud.

In the case that Singh reviewed with personal information redacted, the refugee board adjudicator drew comparisons between the man’s claim and five others.

“I am a follower of the Sikh religion, and my family and I are devout Sikhs … 1became (sic) the member of Khalistan movement (aiming for a peaceful creation of an independent state for Sikh people),” according to the refugee refusal decision, which set out a side-by-side table highlighting each similar paragraph in those claims. The parentheses are from the claim, which includes grammatical errors, as cited in the decision.

“The primary objective for joining movement was to establish a new nation for the Sikh community, providing them the freedom to practice their religious activities and ensuring equal rights for all.”

Apart from the different date noting when the claimant joined the movement, the whole paragraph, including the typo “1,” was the same as the narrative cited by the refugee protection tribunal. The claims also referred to visits by Indian authorities to the family homes to look for the claimant and for alleged links to Pakistan.

The person told the tribunal that he did not know why others’ narratives were similar to his word for word, but did explain that what happened to him could have happened to all Sikhs given the circumstances. The refugee judge, however, concluded that’s not reasonable.

Sean Rehaag, director of Refugee Law Laboratory at Osgoode Hall Law School, said there are anti-plagiarism tools that universities have used for a long time to find similar bits of text, as well as ways for the refugee board to identify similar claims without using high-tech.

For instance, said Rehaag, a decision-maker may encounter two or more similar claims, and refer to the board administration to look into it further, examining other files from the same country by the same representative. Or decision-makers may talk with one another about a particular type of case, or someone triaging cases discovers a pattern and flags it internally.

Rehaag said the information could also come from immigration and border agency officials, who he said probably have program integrity tools that would allow them to identify suspicious patterns. In those circumstances, he said, officials would then intervene in the refugee proceedings based on integrity concerns.

The Immigration and Refugee Board told the Star that it does not use artificial intelligence at any stage of processing or deciding claims.

“While claims from the same country or region may share common elements, credibility or integrity issues could be raised if review of the files identified substantially similar claimants’ narratives about the specific circumstances of their claim,” the board said in an email.

Where similarities are identified in the process, it said claimants are required to provide an explanation. If the claimant is found to have provided false or misleading evidence, it could lead to a rejection….

Source: How do Canadian officials detect plagiarized refugee claims?

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USA: New Immigration Service Director May Pursue An Anti-Immigration Agenda

2025/08/08 Leave a comment

Incorrect title – not “may” but “will:”

The new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will likely focus the agency on the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda. On July 15, 2025, Joseph Edlow began as USCIS director following a Senate confirmation vote along party lines. Edlow’s job will be to implement the policies of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. The agenda will include restricting asylum, directing adjudicators to tighten the approval process for immigration benefits applications and ending or controlling the ability of international students to work in the United States after graduating from U.S. universities.

USCIS Will Be An Immigration Enforcement Agency

In an opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation, Joseph Edlow said, “USCIS must be an immigration enforcement agency.” That sends a message to adjudicators: Treat applications similarly to those during Donald Trump’s first term, when denials increased and Requests for Evidence skyrocketed at USCIS.

In a question submitted to Edlow, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), the committee’s ranking member, wrote, “The Homeland Security Act does not include language stating that USCIS is an immigration enforcement agency. . . . The statute makes clear that unlike ICE and Customs and Border Protection, USCIS’s primary mission is adjudication and processing of applications, not enforcement. Will you retract your inaccurate statement that ‘USCIS must be an immigration enforcement agency?’” Edlow replied in writing, “No. The statement was not inaccurate as the adjudication of immigration benefits is inherently an act of enforcement of the immigration laws.”

Jon Wasden of Wasden Law said the USCIS transition from a “service” to an “enforcement” agency began under Barack Obama and intensified during Donald Trump’s first term. He notes that even during the Biden administration, USCIS continued to take funds and reallocate them to the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate within USCIS, which he believes violates the Homeland Security Act. Wasden is harsh in his assessment: “Both parties have created an environment where applicants are seen as the enemy, treated as criminals, and officers are above the law. I wish I could lay all this at the feet of Stephen Miller, but his Democrat predecessors share the blame.”

Still, USCIS differed significantly under Joe Biden compared to Trump’s first term. The Biden administration’s final rule on H-1B visas proved to be far more favorable for employers, universities and high-skilled foreign nationals than anything produced during the Trump years. Policy experts viewed the Trump administration’s interim final rule on H-1B visas, which a court blocked for violating the Administrative Procedure Act, as designed to prevent, or at least discourage, employers from using the H-1B category by narrowing eligibility and piling on requirements. A Department of Labor interim final rule would have priced many H-1B visa holders and employment-based immigrants out of the U.S. labor market by inflating the required salaries.

“Positive actions the Biden administration took on high-skilled immigration included taking steps to issue an ‘unprecedented’ number of employment-based green cards, increasing the validity of Employment Authorization Documents for up to five years, providing favorable guidance for O-1A visas and national interest waivers and making it easier for some employment-based green card applicants to stay if they have ‘compelling circumstances,” according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis. “O-1A visa filings and requests for national interest waivers increased significantly after the new guidance.”

The NFAP analysis noted that the Trump administration carried out what judges found to be unlawful policies on H-1B visas for nearly four years. An H-1B is often the only practical way for a high-skilled foreign national, including an international student, to work long term in the United States. Denial rates for H-1B petitions for initial employment reached 24% in FY 2018 and 21% in FY 2019, compared to 6% in FY 2015. (H-1B petitions for “initial” employment are primarily for new employment, typically a case that would count against the H-1B annual limit.) Only lawsuits, court rulings and a legal settlement ended the policies.

Source: New Immigration Service Director May Pursue An Anti-Immigration Agenda

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Les faux représentants en immigration, un véritable fléau

2025/08/07 Leave a comment

Good series in Le Devoir on immigration consultants and fraud:

…Consultants « fantômes », faux avocats, usurpateurs d’identité de vrais consultants : de plus en plus de faux représentants font payer des services d’immigration sans être autorisés à les dispenser, selon les informations compilées par Le Devoir.

Au Québec et dans le reste du Canada, il n’est pas obligatoire d’avoir recours à ce genre d’intermédiaire pour déposer une demande en immigration, quelle qu’elle soit. Mais à partir du moment où quelqu’un facture ce genre de services, il doit en revanche être impérativement autorisé : avocat membre du Barreau du Québec, consultant membre du Collège des consultants en immigration et en citoyenneté (CCIC) ou encore notaire à la Chambre des notaires du Québec.

Le problème est difficile à appréhender dans son ensemble, notamment parce que plusieurs entités opèrent de l’étranger et en dehors de la loi. Mais s’il n’y a qu’une pointe de l’iceberg à déceler, elle est déjà immense : dans la dernière année, le CCIC a fait fermer plus de 5000 pages Web et de médias sociaux qui faisaient la promotion de praticiens non autorisés.

Sur le terrain

Dans un contexte où les restrictions en immigration rendent de plus en plus difficile le renouvellement des permis de travail, d’études ou encore l’accès à la résidence permanente, « les faux représentants sont devenus un vrai fléau », dit Louis-Philippe Jannard, coordonnateur du volet protection de la Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes.

« C’est un problème endémique dans certains quartiers », abonde aussi Camille Bonenfant, organisatrice communautaire à la Clinique pour la justice migrante. Lorsque des membres de son équipe se déplacent pour donner des ateliers d’information, c’est presque « systématique » : les personnes rencontrées « s’approchent et nous montrent une carte d’affaires d’une personne qui n’est enregistrée nulle part ».

« C’est sûr qu’il y a une augmentation », tranche aussi Dory Jade, qui soulève le problème depuis 20 ans. Il est directeur général de l’Association canadienne des consultants professionnels en immigration et a eu connaissance des plus grandes comme des plus petites fraudes : « Il y a des cas qui ont payé des centaines de milliers de dollars à des individus qui leur ont fait miroiter qu’ils pouvaient les emmener au Canada », raconte-t-il.

Ou encore des gens qui ont vendu toutes leurs possessions pour obtenir des papiers… qui ne sont jamais arrivés, poursuit M. Jade….

Source: Les faux représentants en immigration, un véritable fléau

Other articles in the series: Des usurpateurs aux faux avocats : la jungle des consultants en immigration, Des solutions pour contrer les consultants fantômes en immigration, Quand le rêve canadien vire au cauchemar | Parcours

… “Ghost” consultants, false lawyers, identity thieves of real consultants: more and more false representatives are charging immigration services without being authorized to dispense them, according to information compiled by Le Devoir.

In Quebec and the rest of Canada, it is not mandatory to use this kind of intermediary to file an immigration application, whatever it may be. But from the moment someone charges for this type of service, he must be authorized: a lawyer member of the Barreau du Québec, a consultant member of the Collège des consultants en immigration et en citoyenneté (CCIC) or a notary at the Chambre des notaires du Québec.

The problem is difficult to understand as a whole, in particular because several entities operate from abroad and outside the law. But if there is only one tip of the iceberg to detect, it is already huge: in the last year, the CCIC has closed more than 5,000 web and social media pages that promoted unauthorized practitioners.

In the field

In a context where immigration restrictions are making it increasingly difficult to renew work permits, study permits or access to permanent residence, “false representatives have become a real scourge,” says Louis-Philippe Jannard, coordinator of the protection component of the Consultation Table for organizations serving refugees and immigrants.

“It’s an endemic problem in some neighborhoods,” says Camille Bonenfant, community organizer at the Clinic for Migrant Justice. When members of his team travel to give information workshops, it is almost “systematic”: the people met “approach and show us a business card of a person who is not registered anywhere”.

“It is certain that there is an increase,” says Dory Jade, who has been raising the problem for 20 years. He is Director General of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants and has learned of the biggest and smallest frauds: “There are cases that have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to individuals who have made them think they could take them to Canada,” he says.

Or people who sold all their possessions to get papers… who never arrived, continues Mr. Jade….

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Wright: The Bogus Idea That Will Not Die

2025/08/06 Leave a comment

Indeed:

…What we are describing is essentially a Ponzi scheme. All Ponzi schemes ultimately collapse when it becomes impossible to recruit enough new “investors” to keep the scheme going. The longer it goes on, the bigger the eventual collapse. You can’t fix a Ponzi scheme by keeping it going.

And yet, that is essentially what the proponents of greater population growth are offering as the solution – their advice is to keep the Ponzi scheme going.

In the next few posts, we will look at this in a little more detail – how the terms of the senior promise arose, what we can do to make it sustainable going forward, and the intergenerational consequences if we instead keep the Ponzi scheme going.

Source: The Bogus Idea That Will Not Die

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Worswick: Where’s this brain gain of elite U.S. professors we keep talking about?

2025/08/06 Leave a comment

Arguing for a more selective approach to international student recruitment while allowing numbers to rise again (most of the abuse happened at the college and satellite campus levels):

…Taken together, this is hardly an environment where we would expect professors from elite U.S. universities to go when they can move to almost anywhere in the world. The widely cited QS ranking places Harvard University 5th in the world, while nearby MIT ranks 1st. University of Oxford is ranked 4th and University of Melbourne is ranked 19th, while the highest-ranked Canadian universities are McGill at 27th and University of Toronto at 29th. It is unlikely that the extreme budget stresses these Canadian universities now face have yet to fully affect their global reputations, and so their rankings may not stay this high.

Universities are important parts of modern economies. In the case of Ontario, a 2021 Conference Board of Canada report found that universities’ annual activities and human capital development is equal in value to 11.7 per cent of the province’s GDP. Elite professors can raise the prestige of their institution and help attract international students, strengthening the economy through their tuition and expenditures. To gain more of these benefits, both the federal and provincial governments should adapt policies to help Canadian universities attract top academics from the around the world.

Provincial governments are clearly struggling to provide adequate funding for both health care and education, and health care is typically ranked by Canadians as the greater priority. In this context, provinces should focus public resources on reducing health care shortages and allow universities to operate more independently, setting tuition as appropriate to support their academic programs.

The Canada Research Chair program needs to be revamped. The annual transfer from the federal government to the university for a given category of chair has not changed since 2000, meaning that, in real terms, each chair has fallen in value by roughly 40 per cent and will continue to fall in real terms with future inflation. The Canada Excellence Research Chairs, introduced in 2008, are more generous, but the program needs to be expanded if it is going to attract many elite faculty members from the U.S. 

Finally, as I have argued before, international student numbers at universities should be allowed to rise again given the high tuition fees they raise and the fact that these students typically go on to be strong candidates as economic immigrants. This would generate higher revenue, allowing universities to make more competitive salary offers to top international candidates.

Source: Where’s this brain gain of elite U.S. professors we keep talking about?

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Le Canada est-il vraiment un sanctuaire pour les immigrants LGBTQ+?

2025/08/06 Leave a comment

Expectations of paradise in general are unrealistic:

..Le Canada, un paradis queer ?

C’est d’ailleurs le genre de partenariat qui renforce encore davantage l’image du Canada comme lieu sûr pour les communautés LGBTQ+. Une réputation bel et bien basée sur des faits, tranche Ahmed Hamila, professeur de sociologie à l’Université de Montréal. Ce qui ne veut pas dire qu’il ne faut pas la nuancer, s’empresse-t-il d’ajouter.

À leur arrivée, plusieurs de ces demandeurs d’asile vivent une « lune de miel » — d’une durée d’environ cinq ans, selon la plus récente collecte de données de M. Hamila. « Après, les personnes commencent à déconstruire cette image paradisiaque. Parce que, en plus du fait qu’elles doivent faire face à des enjeux d’homophobie ou de transphobie, s’ajoutent des enjeux de racisme et de xénophobie — des problèmes qu’elles ne connaissaient pas dans leur pays parce qu’elles faisaient partie de la majorité. »

Même au Canada, un pays où les droits LGBTQ+ font partie des « valeurs intrinsèques », poursuit le spécialiste, « il reste que, dans le traitement des demandes d’asile et dans l’accès aux soins et aux services sociaux, il y a encore de grands défis pour les personnes réfugiées, migrantes et racisées ». Celui qui est également codirecteur de la Clinique Mauve donne l’exemple des papiers d’immigration, qui permettent difficilement le changement de genre ou le choix du marqueur « X ».

« La situation est peut-être meilleure qu’ailleurs, mais ces personnes vivent de la discrimination en milieu de travail et dans le logement. Et [elles se heurtent à] énormément de barrières pour avoir accès [au statut de réfugié] ou au système de justice », note aussi de son côté M. Otaegi Alcaide.

Si l’image du Canada continue à être celle d’un « paradis queer », c’est que le pays a quand même fait figure de pionnier en la matière, poursuit M. Hamila. En 1993, la Cour suprême a reconnu dans l’arrêt Ward que l’orientation sexuelle pouvait être un motif d’asile au pays. Mais c’est « presque par hasard », au détour d’exemples donnés de « l’appartenance à un groupe social » et non pas à la suite d’une demande précise pour cette raison, souligne-t-il.

Ce n’est que près de 10 ans plus tard, en 2002, que le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés a reconnu à son tour ce motif pour octroyer le statut protégé de réfugié….

Source: Le Canada est-il vraiment un sanctuaire pour les immigrants LGBTQ+?

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As premiers push for more immigration power, experts call for a fact-based debate

2025/08/05 Leave a comment

Please, evidence-based policy, not the reverse…:

Some premiers say they want to have more local control over the immigration system — but experts say what the system really needs is a national conversation on immigration reform that shores up public support.

“Most of the existing policies have been formulated on the fly without any evidence or serious impact evaluations of what the various classes of immigrants are, how they’re performing economically and otherwise,” said Michael Trebilcock, a retired academic and co-author of two books on immigration policy.

“So it’s basically research-free.”

As the premiers and territorial leaders were wrapping up their three-day meeting in Huntsville, Ont., late last month, they called for an increase to economic immigration levels to fill local labour gaps and said they would use their constitutional powers to seize more control over immigration and issue work permits.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford later walked back his vow to issue work permits to asylum seekers.

“Do I want the whole immigration system on the shoulder of the province? No. Would I like to be treated the same way as Quebec? Yes, and so would every other province and territory,” Ford said last Monday.

Quebec has its own distinct immigration system through an agreement with the federal government. The province is able to choose who can immigrate to Quebec based on its own criteria, with French language skills being a significant factor.

David Piccini, Ontario’s immigration minister, said last Monday that the province also wants to see more financial support from Ottawa to help pay for social services strained by a high number of asylum seekers landing in Ontario.

Ninette Kelley, a former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees official and a former member of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, said that provincial control over immigration has grown significantly over the last two decades.

“They know what their provinces need today, and they want to make sure they get the labour in that is required to meet those demands,” she said.

“But at the same time, there’s been absolutely no evaluation that I can see of how those programs are implemented or what effect they’re having.”

Trebilcock said the premiers’ concerns need to be taken seriously because increased immigration boosts demand for health care and other provincial services.

He said that it’s “disturbing” to see Canadians’ support for immigration decline in multiple public opinion polls. He said current immigration policies lack broad support and he believes a comprehensive, public review is needed to rebuild that support through evidence-based policies.

“What we see at present is often piecemeal, on-the-fly changes in reaction to particular concerns that have surfaced in the media … international students, temporary foreign workers,” he said.

Kelley said that, instead of a multi-year exercise like a national inquiry, a top-to-bottom immigration system review could be conducted quickly with “the right people at the table.”

Saskatchewan Immigration Minister Jim Reiter told The Canadian Press that he and the other subnational immigration ministers have told Ottawa they want to be seen more as partners in immigration, not stakeholders.

“We need more influence in the decision-making of this because so much of the economic stream needs to be targeted depending on the specific needs of each province,” Reiter said.

The federal government last year slashed the number of slots in the Provincial Nominee Program from 110,000 to 55,000 as part of broader efforts to rein in immigration.

The program allows provinces and territories to nominate individuals for permanent residence based on their skills and ability to contribute to the economy. Each province and territory has its own set of program streams targeting different types of immigrants based on factors like skills or business experience.

Reiter said provincial immigration ministers want to see the Provincial Nominee Program return to its previous levels.

He said that while he understands the need to reduce the number of temporary visas, that shouldn’t come at the expense of economic immigrants.

“We’ve had to restrict (the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program) down to three streams now to a large degree because we just don’t have enough spots anymore,” Reiter said.

Reiter said that of the 3,600 spots Saskatchewan has for its immigrant nominee program, three-quarters have to go to temporary workers, so the province is prioritizing nominees who work in health care and skilled trades.

“We’ve got the largest potash mine in the world being built … just outside of Saskatoon and that company, BHP, every time we meet with them they raise the issue that skilled trades are an issue. So this is having a detrimental effect on economic growth,” he said.

Trebilcock said that if provinces are focused on using immigration to strengthen their local labour markets, steps could be taken to make it easier to recognize immigrants’ foreign credentials in fields like law and medicine.

With federal immigration decisions having provincial consequences, Kelley said, running an effective immigration system requires close collaboration between all levels of government.

“So that speaks to the need for really tight co-operation between the federal government and the provincial government and municipalities, both in the setting of levels and in the housing and medical policies that are currently in place so that we can accommodate those who we’re letting in,” she said.

Source: As premiers push for more immigration power, experts call for a fact-based debate

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Idées | Les défis administratifs et linguistiques de la francisation

2025/08/05 Leave a comment

Interesting discussion on purity vs pragmatism:

…Heureusement, on constate aussi des améliorations en matière de francisation. Un élément auquel on ne pense pas spontanément, mais qui est important, est le choix des manuels de francisation. Auparavant, les manuels s’alignaient sur le français européen, voire parisien. On employait des mots caractéristiques du français européen sans toujours donner leur équivalent en Amérique (comme portable pour cellulaire ou football pour soccer). Aujourd’hui, les manuels utilisés au Québec sont plus adaptés au contexte québécois. C’est notamment le cas des manuels « Par ici », qui utilisent par exemple arachide plutôt que cacahuète et sac à dos plutôt que cartable. Ce n’est pas banal : les apprenants reconnaîtront ainsi les mots du quotidien.

Les manuels de français langue seconde employés dans le Canada anglais ne semblent pas tous avoir mené la même réflexion sur la variation de la langue. Le fait que la langue française varie selon l’endroit où elle est parlée dans la francophonie se comprend assez aisément. Cependant, dans certains manuels, on sent une confusion entre, d’une part, cette variation dans l’espace et, d’autre part, la variation selon la situation de communication ou le registre. Il peut être tout à fait pertinent d’expliciter certaines expressions familières très courantes, comme c’est plate et avoir de la misère, comme le fait « Par ici », tout en précisant qu’elles appartiennent au registre familier. (C’est ainsi que mon ami turc Mehmet me demandait ce que signifiait l’expression ammanné. J’ai dû le faire répéter quelques fois pour comprendre qu’il s’agissait de à un moment donné…) L’information sur les registres est cruciale : le nouvel arrivant doit savoir qu’il peut dire salut et blonde à un ami, mais qu’il est préférable de dire bonjour et conjointe lors d’un entretien d’embauche. Mais certains manuels véhiculent une vision caricaturale du français québécois, comme si ses particularités se résumaient à des mots très familiers. Un manuel dresse une liste des « expressions idiomatiques » du Québec qui ne regroupe en fait que des usages très familiers : char, loader ses cartes de crédit, veut veut pas… Aucune information sur le fait que le français québécois possède aussi des particularismes neutres, comme traversier, présentement ou aréna.

Par ailleurs, on sent une confusion entre le rôle de la francisation et une certaine vision puriste de la langue. L’objectif est de faire du français la langue commune et de permettre aux nouveaux arrivants de s’intégrer à la société et au marché du travail. Est-il vraiment nécessaire d’enseigner dès les premiers mois de francisation que  caméra est un anglicisme critiqué à remplacer par appareil photo et qu’on doit employer scolaire plutôt qu’académique ? On peut aussi contester certains choix : pourquoi employer croustilles plutôt que chips, que le nouvel arrivant entendra indéniablement plus souvent ?

Poussé à l’extrême, le purisme peut avoir des conséquences négatives sur le français, même s’il part d’un attachement profond envers la langue. La sociolinguiste Françoise Gadet définit le purisme comme « une sacralisation de la norme, éventuellement jusque dans le respect des formes les moins rationnelles ». Or, certaines règles particulièrement illogiques et incohérentes de l’orthographe française sont extrêmement difficiles à acquérir, même pour des francophones de langue maternelle. Mettons-nous à la place du nouvel arrivant qui apprend sa deuxième, voire sa troisième langue, qui plus est à l’âge adulte.

« Madame, j’ai appris à parler français, je me débrouille bien, mais je n’arrive pas à réussir le test écrit de français pour accéder à l’université. Je déménage en Ontario. »

C’est le genre de confidences que partagent avec moi à l’occasion des étudiants en francisation. On peut se demander en quoi conserver les règles d’accord du participe passé ou du pluriel de « rose incarnat » et de « sapin vert-de-gris » aident à la promotion du français.

Mireille Elchacar L’autrice est lexicologue et professeure à l’Université TELUQ. Elle a publié Délier la langue. Pour un nouveau discours sur le français au Québec.

Source: Idées | Les défis administratifs et linguistiques de la francisation

… Fortunately, there are also improvements in francization. One element that we do not think of spontaneously, but which is important, is the choice of francization manuals. Previously, textbooks were aligned with European French, even Parisian. Characteristic words of European French were used without always giving their equivalent in America (such as mobile phone for cell phone or football for soccer). Today, the textbooks used in Quebec are more adapted to the Quebec context. This is particularly the case with the “Par ici” manuals, which use, for example, peanut instead of peanut and backpack rather than schoolbag. It is not trivial: learners will recognize the words of everyday life.

The French as a second language textbooks used in English Canada do not all seem to have conducted the same reflection on the variation of the language. The fact that the French language varies according to where it is spoken in the Francophonie is quite easy to understand. However, in some manuals, there is a confusion between, on the one hand, this variation in space and, on the other hand, the variation according to the communication situation or the register. It can be quite relevant to explain certain very common colloquial expressions, such as it’s flat and have misery, such as “Here”, while specifying that they belong to the colloquial register. (This is how my Turkish friend Mehmet asked me what the expression ammanné meant. I had to repeat it a few times to understand that it was at some point…) The information on the registers is crucial: the newcomer must know that he can say hello and blonde to a friend, but that it is better to say hello and wife during a job interview. But some manuals convey a caricatured vision of Quebec French, as if its peculiarities were summarized in very familiar words. A manual draws up a list of Quebec’s “idiomatic expressions” that in fact only includes very familiar uses: tank, load your credit cards, wants doesn’t want… No information on the fact that Quebec French also has neutral particularisms, such as ferry, currently or arena.

Moreover, there is a confusion between the role of francization and a certain puristic vision of the language. The objective is to make French the common language and to allow newcomers to integrate into society and the labor market. Is it really necessary to teach from the first months of francization that camera is a criticized anglicism to be replaced by camera and that we must use school rather than academic? We can also challenge certain choices: why use chips instead of chips, which the newcomer will undeniably hear more often?

Pushed to the extreme, purism can have negative consequences on French, even if it starts from a deep attachment to the language. Sociolinguist Françoise Gadet defines purism as “a sacralization of the norm, possibly even in respect of the least rational forms”. However, some particularly illogical and incoherent rules of French spelling are extremely difficult to acquire, even for French speakers whose mother tongue. Let’s put ourselves in the place of the newcomer who learns his second, or even his third language, moreover in adulthood.

“Madam, I learned to speak French, I’m doing well, but I can’t pass the written French test to get to university. I’m moving to Ontario. ”

This is the kind of confidences that Frenchization students share with me. One may wonder how preserving the rules of agreement of the past participle or plural of “pink incarnat” and “fir green-of-gris” help to promote French.

Mireille Elchacar The author is a lexicologist and professor at TELUQ University. She published Délier la langue. For a new discourse on French in Quebec.

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Rempel Garner: Without national identity, integration is impossible and collapse is inevitable.

2025/08/02 Leave a comment

Always worth reading the Conservative take on immigration policy even when overly partisan and exaggerated in places. Some of her critiques have some merit but are weakened by being overstated. And to ignore broader trends on belonging and pinning everything on the Trudeau government is shallow at best:

…For example, on immigration, the Trudeau Liberals narrowed the age range for mandatory language and knowledge requirements in citizenship applications from 14-64 to 18-54, thus diminishing shared language’s role in Canadian identity for newcomers. They eliminated the in-person citizenship oath requirement. They sought to erase references to practices like female genital mutilation as abhorrent in the citizenship study guide, and in so doing, arguably normalized their importation into Canada. They turned a blind eye to judicial rulings allowing immigration status to factor into sentencing violent criminals, valuing the process of entry into the country over the responsibility associated with citizenship. They allowed Canada’s compassionate asylum system to be abused into a mockery.

The Trudeau Liberals also normalized the practice of the importation of conflicts from newcomer’s countries of origin, rather than primarily encouraging the shedding of these quarrels in favour of a pluralistic, unified Canadian identity rooted in Western democratic values. This phenomenon is best exemplified via the Trudeau government’s tolerance of diasporic lobby groups’ influence in elections and Canadian institutions, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to groups who sought to plant international conflicts and even terrorist principles in Canadian soil. And despite clear evidence of rising foreign interference in elections, the Liberals have yet to implement a foreign agent registry.

The Trudeau Liberals also prioritized cultural and ethnic differences over a shared ethos of equality in hiring and storytelling. For example, they embedded divisive, quasi-racist hiring policies into federal funding for educational institutions. They allowed Canada’s publicly funded national broadcaster to consider abandoning objectivity for racialized narratives, and now allocate news funding based on whether or not outlets sufficiently highlight ethnic, religious, and other group differences.

And rather than enlisting newcomers to help strengthen a cohesive Canadian national identity, such as by constructively addressing the nation’s historic injustices while simultaneously celebrating its positive achievements, the Trudeau Liberals actively erased symbols of shared historic Canadian identity from public view. They redesigned the Canadian passport to replace images of Canadian national heroes like Terry Fox with inert objects like a wheelbarrow. They supported activities that established the Canadian flag as a symbol of shame as opposed to a representation of patriotism. They worked to erase Canada’s founders from places of prominence.

Thus, Canada’s political left has profoundly succeeded in transforming Canada into a post-national no-nation, free from the trappings of a cohesive national identity.

For those who might argue that this is a good thing, they are very wrong. 

What Justin Trudeau overlooked in his Liberal government’s zealous pursuit of post-nationalism is that his father’s multicultural vision could only thrive under robust Western democratic institutions. Without a government prioritizing above all else, especially over partisan ideology, the safeguarding of principles like freedom of speech, secularism, and equality of opportunity, multiculturalism will inevitably destroy a peaceful, democratic pluralism.

The proof is in the pudding. Today in Canada, after decades of post-national, national identity-destroying policies, less than half of Canadian youth say they would fight for the country. This marks a startling shift from generations ago, when Canadians fought for what seemed to be immutable freedoms in the Great Wars. Diasporic conflicts now erupt on Canadian streets, hate crimes against ethnic and religious groups have surged, and the once-strong Canadian consensus on immigration is solidly broken.

If Canadians want to reverse the pluralism-destroying course post-nationalism has set us on, everyone, regardless of political stripe, must acknowledge that post-nationalism has eroded Canada’s national identity to point of non-existence. That state of affairs is likely the biggest threat to Canada’s sovereignty today.

History proves this conclusion correct. For a civilization to survive the test of history it needs some sort of cohesive shared identity. Without it, collapse occurs. There’s even examples to be found within Canada’s own evolution in the 20th century. In the early 1900s a Canadian national identity had taken root in spite of high levels of immigration. Forged in the crucibles of battlefields like Vimy Ridge, peoples of many backgrounds fought together as Canadians, united by shared values of democracy, rule of law, bilingualism, and loyalty to the Crown. To be Canadian then was to embrace English or French as a primary language, respect parliamentary institutions, and demonstrate civic duty through collective efforts in war and nation-building. 

Fast forward to today. Our domestic efforts fail to build critical national infrastructure and have allowed our military to atrophy to the point of near non-functionality. Our foreign policy rewards the tactics of terrorist organizations and abandons Western allies in times of crisis. Logic dictates that if the Liberal government continues eroding the Western democratic values that once, but arguably no longer, underpin Canada’s rapidly disappearing pluralistic national identity (freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and equality in the rule of law’s application), then collapse is what should be expected of Canada’s once-vaunted pluralism.

Those looking for remedy from new Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely be sorely disappointed. Long an adherent to the World Economic Forum’s globalist brand of post-nationalism, the best definition of Canada’s national identity he has mustered is that we’re not the United States. His new “Minister of National Identity” Stephen Guilbeault managed an arguably worse response, offering pithiness like “I won’t stand here and pretend that I can tell you what Canadian identity is or should be,” while arguing there is “no one way to be Canadian.” That neither could define Canadian identity as rooted in shared respect for things like the rule of Western-based law, freedom of speech, freedom to worship, and equality of opportunity is telling.

The reality for Mr. Carney is that his government must reverse the many changes Mr. Trudeau made under his aggressive post-national doctrine to order to rebuild Canada’s national identity, prevent pluralism’s collapse, and retain our sovereignty.

If he fails, the effect will be the same as if he were to tip over Cardiff’s speakers in the National Gallery: a shameful and purposeful squandering of an intricate, delicate masterpiece.

Source: Without national identity, integration is impossible and collapse is inevitable.

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with

ICYMI: Temporary foreign workers may get more flexibility to move jobs as Ottawa eyes changes to program

2025/08/02 Leave a comment

Not getting much support from worker organizations but policy is always a balance between different stakeholders:

The federal government is exploring changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program that would give workers more freedom to move jobs within their industry, rather than have their permits tied to a single employer.

Internal documents from Employment and Social Development Canada – the ministry in charge of the program – detail proposals to introduce a new sector-specific permit for workers in the agricultural and fish processing industries. 

The work permit, issued for two years, would allow workers to move between employers in the same sector as long as they have a new job offer from an employer. Currently, if workers lose their jobs, they also lose their permits.

The ESDC documents consist of six proposals to change aspects of the TFW program, including guidelines related to housing, wages, access to health care and transportation for workers. They were based on feedback from employer associations and labour groups and written over the past year.

The documents were provided to The Globe and Mail from Migrant Rights Network, a national advocacy organization that has long campaigned to abolish the closed work permit system and grant temporary foreign workers a direct path to permanent residency. The organization obtained the documents as part of the government’s consultation process.

On Wednesday, the group released a report criticizing the new federal proposals, characterizing the sector-specific work permits as a cosmetic change that would maintain employer control while creating an illusion of freedom and mobility for workers. The report says this is because employers would still have the ability to blacklist workers who leave their jobs. …

In November, 2024, a parliamentary committee on citizenship and immigration recommended that Ottawa get rid of the closed-work-permit system entirely, and introduce regional or sector-specific work permits that would define sectors broadly, and provide workers with access to a wide range of employers. 

The proposed changes from ESDC appear to build on recommendations from the parliamentary committee and a 2023 report from the United Nations, which branded the TFW program as a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”

Beyond the stream-specific work permit, ESDC is proposing a redesigned LMIA process, in which employers obtain a Temporary Foreign Worker Employer Authorization (TFWEA) that they apply for every two years. A TFWEA, according to ESDC documents, will allow an employer to be approved to hire numerous foreign workers every two years, instead of the current system of applying for an LMIA approval each time employers need to fill a position with a foreign worker. “The TFWEA would be refillable, meaning that employers could re-fill a position that a TFW left with a qualified TFW who has a valid stream-specific work permit,” the document states. 

The government is touting the changes as measures that will benefit both workers and employers. The latter group, according to ESDC, would have more flexibility to replace workers. Meanwhile, those who find themselves out of work would be able to start a job more quickly with a new employer. …

Source: Temporary foreign workers may get more flexibility to move jobs as Ottawa eyes changes to program

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