Élargissement de la laïcité: Québec impose le visage découvert à tous, de la garderie à l’université

2025/11/26 2 Comments

Hard not to agree with banning the niqab but other religious symbols that don’t cover the face are another matter:

Cette nouvelle obligation vaudra à la fois pour la petite enfance, pour les étudiants au niveau postsecondaire et pour l’ensemble des employés de ces établissements, selon les informations obtenues par La Presse. Il faut s’attendre à ce que cette mesure s’applique également aux établissements privés. La Loi sur le renforcement de la laïcité à l’école, adoptée plus tôt cet automne, interdit déjà aux élèves et au personnel scolaire au primaire et au secondaire d’avoir le visage couvert.

Le ministre responsable de la Laïcité, Jean-François Roberge, doit déposer jeudi un projet de loi en ce sens, après avoir confirmé plus tôt cet automne qu’il interdirait le port de signes religieux aux éducatrices des centres de la petite enfance (CPE) et des garderies subventionnées, ainsi que dans les services de garde en milieu familial qui relèvent d’un bureau coordonnateur. Les éducatrices déjà en poste qui portent un signe religieux bénéficieront d’un droit acquis.

Aucun recensement n’aurait été fait pour savoir combien de personnes dans le réseau éducatif portent un signe religieux couvrant l’ensemble du visage, comme le voile intégral. 

Mais gouverner, c’est prévoir ce qui pourrait arriver, explique une source gouvernementale, qui n’est pas autorisée à parler du projet de loi, puisque celui-ci n’est pas encore déposé. Le Québec n’est pas à l’abri d’une éventuelle multiplication de tels signes religieux, souligne cette source.

Depuis 2017, la Loi favorisant le respect de la neutralité religieuse de l’État, adoptée sous les libéraux, prévoit que « le membre du personnel d’un organisme public doit exercer ses fonctions à visage découvert ». La personne qui reçoit un service public a pour sa part l’obligation d’avoir le visage découvert lorsqu’il y a « une interaction » avec un employé.

Avec la loi que présentera cette semaine Jean-François Roberge, une telle personne devra montrer son visage en tout temps pendant son parcours éducatif.

Pas d’interdiction du voile intégral en public

Malgré l’adoption d’une résolution par les militants caquistes demandant au gouvernement d’interdire à quiconque de cacher son visage en public, Jean-François Roberge ne bannira pas le voile intégral de l’espace public.

Au congrès annuel de la Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) à Gatineau, en septembre, les militants s’étaient prononcés à 152 contre 150 pour « interdire aux personnes, en tout temps, de cacher leur visage dans l’espace public ». Le ministre responsable de la Laïcité avait voté en faveur de cette résolution et s’était même présenté au micro pour inviter les gens à l’appuyer.

« On voulait de la diversité, de la mixité au Québec, que les gens aillent les uns envers les autres, qu’ils échangent, qu’ils apportent des éléments de leur culture, s’intègrent. Est-ce que ça peut se faire avec le visage caché ou couvert ? […] On peut se poser la question », avait-il dit.

« Il est tout à fait normal qu’on se pose la question pour une question de sécurité publique et de vivre-ensemble », avait ajouté M. Roberge….

Source: Élargissement de la laïcité Québec impose le visage découvert à tous, de la garderie à l’université

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The Rise and Fall of the Gaza Converts

2025/11/26 Leave a comment

Interesting:

…In a 2025 talk at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, researcher Dan Nilsson DeHanas discussed his research on Gen Z Muslims at university campuses in the U.K. and Australia. DeHanas said that the internet has created “a sense of perpetual solidarity” between Muslims and converts who are coming to Islam through a postmodern personal bricolage, concern for traditionally progressive causes like Palestine and climate change (the effects of which are felt keenly in the Middle East and North Africa, where many Muslims live), and the pursuit of “main character energy,” which he defines as “This sense that you’re actually engaging in the plot of something that’s real and exciting, like a feature film. You can’t just sit in the back. You have to go and drive the bus, or be right in the middle of everything.”

That impulse—to live faith as performance, to experience belief as a kind of public participation—also helps explain how quickly the online fervor curdled. The “revert wave” crested at the exact moment when Gaza dominated every conversation. But attention is its own ecosystem, and as Gaza faded from the algorithmic spotlight, so did the reverts’ audience.

Meanwhile, the antisemitic and misogynistic rhetoric of some online Muslim influencers, including reverts, became harder and harder to ignore. Kari, a woman who converted to Islam because of Gaza and posts about her reversion under the handle @izdzdaan, regularly intersperses videos of herself in hijab calling for decolonization in the name of missing indigenous two-spirit women with reposts of Tucker Carlson’s anti-Israel videos. Even some of the young Muslim women who spoke to DeHanas’ research team said that the misogyny is leaping off the screen and into real life, where young men they don’t know feel free to weigh in on how they dress and act. It “seems more possible today to say more radical things than you would have said before,” DeHanas said…

Source: The Rise and Fall of the Gaza Converts

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UK minister flags visa ‘abuse’ as student asylum claims surge

2025/11/26 Leave a comment

Similar dynamics as Canada:

…UK’s Indo-Pacific Minister Seema Malhotra has defended her government’s immigration proposals during a visit to India, while expressing concern about a rise in foreign students seeking asylum at the end of their studies.

Under the new plans, some migrants could have to wait up to 20 years before they can settle permanently in the UK and the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain will be extended from five to 10 years.

The proposals will apply to an estimated 2.6 million people who arrived in the country since 2021. They have drawn criticism from some quarters, including a few Labour MPs, even though the Conservatives gave the measures a cautious welcome.

The reforms are “in line with what countries around the world do” to stop the abuse of their immigration systems, Malhotra told the BBC in the southern Indian city of Chennai, adding that there was a “very strong message we also send, which is that we welcome those coming legally”.

According to Malhotra some16,000 international students from across the world had applied for asylum in the UK last year after completing their courses, which she said was evidence of abuse of legal migration routes.

A further 14,800 students sought asylum this year to June 2025, latest Home Office figures show. It is unclear how many of them are Indian nationals.

“We’ve seen visa abuse in the case of legal routes, where people have gone legally and then sought to overstay when their visas weren’t extended,” Malhotra said.

“If you see that level of abuse, it undermines your immigration system. It undermines public confidence, and the fairness and control people expect.”…

Source: UK minister flags visa ‘abuse’ as student asylum claims surge

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Canada brings big changes to citizenship rules; India-born people to benefit

2025/11/25 Leave a comment

As expected, Indian media has covered the change and likely impact on Indo-Canadians. Representative sample:

…The legislation will benefit those many Canadians who live and raise families abroad for various reasons, yet maintain a strong connection to the country. The bill could benefit thousands of Indian-origin families.

This amendment to the Citizenship Act acknowledges their Canadian identity, ensuring they can pass it on to their children regardless of where they are born….

Source: Canada brings big changes to citizenship rules; India-born people to benefit

Some estimates of numbers:

Barrister Lovleen Gill says the number of Indian immigrants who will benefit is not very large, since most are naturalised citizens and already able to pass on citizenship to children born abroad. But for Indian-origin families affected by overseas maternity during short-term work assignments, the change could still help more than 10,000 households.

If your grandchild was born abroad before 2025, they will almost certainly become Canadian automatically now, closing a long-standing gap for “lost Indian-Canadians”.

Source: Canada’s new citizenship-by-descent law: Recognition of ‘Lost Canadians’, impact on Indians

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We’re Seeing What a No-Immigration Economy Looks Like

2025/11/25 Leave a comment

Some of the same standard arguments in favour of more without specifying category breakdowns and priorities and minimal discussion of the broader impact on society and GDP per capital growth:

…Again, a good outcome in this economic environment will consist of a low unemployment rate with low or no employment growth. This will be something new for many Americans, who understandably connect a healthy job market with higher monthly jobs numbers.

A healthy job market, however, doesn’t necessarily mean a thriving economy. A smaller population resulting from lower immigration means a smaller economy well into the future. On top of that, more restrictive immigration means fewer working-age immigrants paying taxes, even as many of them wait years to get most federal benefits (or never become eligible for them). Finally, economistslink immigration to productivity growth.

In other words, making America less hospitable to immigrants will eventually make America poorer.

Wendy Edelberg is a former chief economist for the Congressional Budget Office

Source: We’re Seeing What a No-Immigration Economy Looks Like

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‘Nobody wants to come’: What if the U.S. can no longer attract immigrant physicians?

2025/11/25 2 Comments

Sad that Canada not on the list:

…”This is a real pivotal moment right now where decades of progress could be at risk,” says Dr. Julie Gralow, chief medical officer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. 

She says policies defunding everything from scientific research to public health have damaged the U.S.’s reputation to the point where she hears from hospitals and universities that top international talent are no longer interested in coming to America. “Up until this year, it was a dream — a wish! — that you could get a job and you could come to the U.S. And now nobody wants to come.”

Gralow says, meanwhile, other countries like China, Denmark, Germany and Australia are taking advantage by recruiting international talent away from the U.S. — including American-born doctors and medical researchers — by promising stable grant funding and state-of-the-art facilities abroad.

American patients will feel the rippling impact from that, Gralow says, for generations.

Immigrant physicians have historically found jobs in U.S. communities with serious health care staff shortages to begin with, so those places also stand to see more impact from curtailed international hiring, says Michael Liu, the Boston medical resident. 

He points to his own recent co-authored research in JAMA estimating that 11,000 doctors, or roughly 1% of the country’s physicians, currently have H1B visas. “That might seem like a small number, but this percentage varied widely across geographies,” he said, and they tend to congregate in the least-resourced areas, reaching up to 40% of physicians in some communities….

Source: ‘Nobody wants to come’: What if the U.S. can no longer attract immigrant physicians?

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Des Français désormais sans statut après avoir omis de fournir un test de français

2025/11/25 Leave a comment

All they had to do was provide proof of attendance at a French-language secondary or post-secondary institution:

…Mais un nouveau règlement d’Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC) venait d’entrer en vigueur le 1er novembre 2024, au tout début du mois : les candidats au PTPD doivent désormais démontrer une compétence linguistique minimale en anglais ou en français.

« Étant de nationalité française — et ayant suivi des études en français, pour mon mari — , nous pensions être exemptés de cette condition », explique Sandrine Théron. Elle souligne aussi que, dans le portail d’IRCC où elle remplissait sa demande, il n’y avait aucun endroit prévu pour déposer le test de langue obligatoire. « Ce n’est toujours pas le cas d’ailleurs », ajoute-t-elle. Aucune attestation de réussite de test de français n’est donc déposée.

« Tout s’écroule »

L’été dernier, huit mois après l’envoi de leur demande, leur vie a basculé : le renouvellement des permis de Jacques et de Sandrine est refusé en raison de ce document manquant. Conséquence ? Ils perdent immédiatement le droit de travailler. « Quelque part, tout s’écroule », laisse tomber Sandrine Théron. « On se retrouve un peu démunis parce que sans activité professionnelle, on n’a plus de salaire. Alors, qu’est-ce qu’on fait ? »

La famille Villanueva-Théron est d’autant plus sous le choc qu’IRCC n’a pas envoyé de lettre d’intention de refus, comme c’est souvent le cas, pour donner une chance aux requérants de fournir les documents manquants. « Autour de nous, ça nous a été expliqué par le fait qu’il y a une volonté de durcir les règles et que, maintenant, dès qu’un dossier n’est pas [complet], quelle que soit la raison, il est rejeté. »

L’avocate en droit de l’immigration Krishna Gagné constate effectivement que le système « ne pardonne pas » même dans le cas d’une faute qui peut être en apparence mineure. « Demander un test de français à un Français d’origine… On est carrément en “Absurdistan”, mais c’est obligatoire », avance-t-elle.

Source: Des Français désormais sans statut après avoir omis de fournir un test de français

… But a new Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) regulation had just entered into force on November 1, 2024, at the very beginning of the month: PTDP candidates must now demonstrate a minimum language proficiency in English or French.

“Being of French nationality – and having studied in French, for my husband – we thought we were exempt from this condition,” explains Sandrine Théron. She also points out that, in the IRCC portal where she was completing her application, there was no place to submit the mandatory language test. “This is still not the case,” she adds. No certificate of success in the French test is therefore filed.

“Everything is collasing”

Last summer, eight months after sending their application, their lives turned upside down: the renewal of Jacques and Sandrine’s permits was refused because of this missing document. Consequence? They immediately lose the right to work. “Somewhere, everything collapses,” says Sandrine Théron. “We find ourselves a little destitute because without professional activity, we no longer have a salary. So, what do we do? ”

The Villanueva-Théron family is all the more shocked that IRCC did not send a letter of intent to refuse, as is often the case, to give applicants a chance to provide the missing documents. “Around us, it was explained to us by the fact that there is a desire to tighten the rules and that, now, as soon as a file is not [complete], whatever the reason, it is rejected. ”

Immigration lawyer Krishna Gagné indeed notes that the system “does not forgive” even in the case of a fault that may be apparently minor. “Ask a French test from a Frenchman of origin… We are downright in “Absurdistan”, but it’s mandatory,” she says.

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Reich: Sinister Pragmatism

2025/11/24 Leave a comment

Well worth reading. Parallels to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and the supine nature of the German business community:

If you’re a multibillionaire, you might view democracy as a potential threat to your net worth. Control over a significant share of the dwindling number of media outlets would enable you to effectively hedge against democracy by suppressing criticism of you and other plutocrats, and discouraging any attempt to – for example – tax away your wealth. 

You also have Donald Trump to contend with. In his second term of office, Trump has brazenly and illegally used the power of the US presidency to punish his enemies and reward those who lavish him with praise and profits. 

So perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising that the editorial board of the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post defended the razing of the East Wing of the White House to build Trump his giant ballroom – without disclosing that the Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon is a major corporate contributor to the ballroom’s funding. The Post’s editorial board also applauded Trump’s defense department’s decision to obtain a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors, but failed to mention Amazon’s stake in X-energy, a company that’s developing small nuclear reactors. And it criticised Washington DC’s refusal to accept self-driving cars without disclosing that Amazon’s self-driving car company was trying to get into the Washington DC market. 

These breaches are inexcusable. 

It’s much the same with the family of Larry Ellison, founder of software firm Oracle and the second-richest person in the world. Ellison is a longtime Trump donor who also, according to court records, participated in a phone call to discuss how his 2020 election defeat could be contested. 

In June 2025, Ellison and Oracle were cosponsors of Trump’s military parade in Washington. At the time, Larry and his son David, founder of Skydance Media, were waiting for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve their $8bn merger with Paramount Global, owner of CBS News. 

In the run-up to the sale, some top brass at CBS News and its flagship 60 Minutes resigned, citing concerns over the network’s ability to maintain its editorial independence, and revealing pressure by Paramount to tamp down stories critical of Trump. No matter. Too much money was at stake. 

In July, Paramount paid $16m to settle Trump’s frivolous lawsuit against CBS and cancelled the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, much to Trump’s delight. Three weeks after the settlement was announced, Trump loyalist Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, approved the Ellisons’ deal, making David chief executive of the new media giant Paramount Skydance and giving him control of CBS News. 

It is impossible to know the full extent to which criticism of Trump and his administration has been chilled by the media-owning billionaires, or what fawning coverage has been elicited. 

But what we do know is that billionaire media owners like Musk, Bezos, Ellison and Murdoch are businessmen first and foremost. Their highest goal is not to inform the public but to make money. They know Trump can wreak havoc on their businesses by imposing unfriendly FCC rulings, enforcing labor laws against them or denying them lucrative government contracts. 

And in an era when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals who have bought up key media, with a thin-skinned president who is willing and able to violate laws and norms to punish or reward, there is a growing danger that the public will not be getting the truth it needs to function. 

Source: Ultra-rich media owners are tightening their grip on democracy. It’s time to wrest our power back

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Gerson: Guess who’s at fault for all the world’s ills? It’s women again

2025/11/24 Leave a comment

Interesting commentary:

….If we have, indeed, produced too many college graduates, this is the sort of behaviour we would expect: greater class insecurity amid growing pressure to conform to ever more radical intellectual dogmas to maintain precarious footholds in narrow cultural in-groups. Who dares risk censure and dissent when there are 20 others just like you with nowhere else to go?

We’ve seen versions of this play out in both progressive and conservative spheres in recent years. Arguably, Ms. Andrews’s own essay is an example of this from the right: a radical position intended to secure her own status among a largely male conservative audience.

To the extent that elite overproduction is disproportionately female – our universities are graduating disproportionately more women – there may be some truth to the Feminization thesis. Women are different from men – indeed, there would be no reason to pursue equality of opportunity if we were all the same. But gender alone can’t adequately explain “woke.” Anyone who misunderstands this fact is just looking for an easy out that affirms some very ancient and easy biases. 

Source: Guess who’s at fault for all the world’s ills? It’s women again

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Saperia: Canada has lost control of its immigration system — and Canadians know it

2025/11/24 Leave a comment

Always interesting to see how advocates and organizations reinvent themselves by latching on to current issues. (Saperia previously was active in the post 9/11 Foundation for the Defence of Democracies which has morphed into Secure Canada with a similar focus on 9/11 victims.)

Some elements of that is proposed are in the process of being implemented in recent changes, others would run into charter and other legal challenges but the point of “endless” legal avenues is valid, as is the need for more effective enforcement.

Not surprising the focus on Iran, even though foreign interference seems to be a more substantive issue with respect to China, among others.

…1) End program-switching and restore security-first screening

Canada must close the loophole that allows individuals to enter as students, workers, or visitors — and then file asylum claims midstream or when their permits expire. This “program-switching” has turned temporary visas into back-door immigration streams, flooding the asylum system with what are often claims of convenience. Refugee protection should be reserved for those fleeing genuine danger, not for those seeking to extend their stay.

At the same time, Canada should return to a security-first approach by processing most immigration and refugee applications overseas, where proper vetting can occur before arrival. This would ensure that the system keeps track of who is entering before they arrive, preventing years-long appeals that erode public confidence. In-Canada processing should be reserved for genuine emergencies.

2) Enforce automatic deportation and end the culture of ‘compassionate’ leniency

Canadians should not need to debate whether a foreign national convicted of child abuse, domestic violence, or terrorism can remain in this country. Yet too often, the system allows offenders and their lawyers to game sentencing, strategically seeking reduced penalties to stay below deportation thresholds — and some judges accommodate this strategy, treating removal as an undue hardship rather than the natural consequence of committing a serious crime.

That mindset must change. Compassion must begin with protecting law-abiding Canadians, rather than shielding those who violate our laws. Conviction for any terrorism, espionage, violent or sexual offence, or crime against children should automatically trigger deportation, without plea bargains or discretionary exemptions that allow offenders to manipulate the system. Immigration is a privilege, not an entitlement — and decision-makers who mistake leniency for mercy compromise both justice and safety.

3) Address the CBSA Enforcement Crisis

Even the strongest laws mean nothing if no one is there to enforce them. Canada Border Services Agency officers face staggering caseloads, managing hundreds of complex security files each while navigating outdated procedures and chronic understaffing. Hundreds of veteran officers are now eligible for early retirement under new pension rules, threatening an enforcement vacuum at the precise moment that migration pressures are surging. Ottawa should immediately implement retention bonuses for experienced staff, fast-track recruitment of law-enforcement and military veterans, and establish a CBSA Reserve Corps to deploy trained retirees during processing, vetting and enforcement surges. Security capacity cannot be an afterthought; it is the foundation of the entire system.

4) Cancel the plan to fast track asylum claimants

Canada’s 2025 budget allocates $120.4 million to fast-track hundreds of thousands of asylum claimants into permanent residency, ostensibly to address processing backlogs. The government’s lack of clarity has created confusion about who qualifies as an “eligible protected person,” what mechanism will be used. Will this program resettled refugees, those accepted by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), or those granted protection through Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA)? This opacity obscures a fundamental security problem: in Canada’s immigration system, “clearing processing backlogs” has historically meant compromising security screenings in favour of processing speed and volume.

5) Close loopholes exploited by foreign regime operatives

Among the most urgent security gaps are those exploited by affiliates of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian regime. Despite Iran’s designation as a state supporter of terrorism, its operatives have used Canada’s immigration and refugee pathways to establish presence, intimidate dissidents, and launder funds. Dedicated IRGC investigation units within CBSA and CSIS — supported by enhanced intelligence sharing and clear legislative authority for deportation — are overdue. Canada’s openness must never shelter those who abuse it to commit foreign repression.

Throughout Canada’s history, immigration has been central to our success — but only when coupled with healthy realism, careful screening, rigorous enforcement, respect for the rule of law, and a firm commitment to a shared civic identity. The immigration reforms that Canada needs are significant, urgent, and essential to preserving public trust, public safety, and Canada’s standing as a nation that takes immigration seriously.

Sheryl Saperia is CEO of Secure Canada, where Sophie Milman is strategic advisor. Ches W. Parsons is a retired Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP and its former Director General of National Security. Secure Canada’s mission is to combat terrorism and extremism by creating innovative laws, policies, and alliances that strengthen Canada’s national security and democracy. 

Source: Opinion: Canada has lost control of its immigration system — and Canadians know it

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

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