Cimetière musulman: Saint-Apollinaire sous tension | Le Devoir

2017/07/13 Leave a comment

Hard to understand the nature of the opposition and we will know on Sunday the results of the referendum:

On saura dimanche si le projet de cimetière musulman de Saint-Apollinaire sera accepté ou non par référendum. Plongée malgré elle au coeur du délicat débat identitaire, la petite ville espère maintenant qu’elle n’en sortira pas trop désunie ou étiquetée.

« Dans n’importe quelle petite communauté comme la nôtre, tu aurais eu le même débat », a dit le maire Bernard Ouellet lors d’une rencontre à son bureau mardi. « J’ai reçu des courriels des quatre coins de la province là-dessus. »

Pour lui, le débat qui secoue la petite ville aurait dû se faire à une plus grande échelle. « Que voulez-vous, c’est nous qui sommes au bâton avec ça… »

Saint-Apollinaire se trouve dans la région de Chaudière-Appalaches, à une trentaine de minutes de Québec. La consultation a ceci de particulier que seulement 47 personnes sur 6000 habitants pourront voter, puisque les anciennes règles encadrant les référendums municipaux ne permettent qu’aux voisins immédiats de se prononcer.

Ces dernières semaines, les camps du «Oui» et du «Non» se sont succédé dans le rang de la Prairie-Grillée pour rallier les électeurs. « On est rendus à sept visites, sans compter les fois où on n’était pas là », a raconté un résidant favorable au projet qui a préféré taire son nom. Pourquoi rester anonyme ? « Parce que j’ai des voisins qui se sont prononcés contre, je ne veux pas brasser tout ça. […] Ma plus grande crainte, c’est pour Saint-Apollinaire. C’est une belle municipalité, et j’ai peur qu’on lui accole une étiquette. »

De l’autre côté du rang, un jeune homme nous a carrément envoyés paître. « Je ne veux rien savoir », a-t-il lancé sans préciser s’il ne voulait rien savoir du cimetière… ou des médias.

Rappelons que le projet vise à construire un cimetière musulman à côté d’un site funéraire multiconfessionnel déjà existant près de l’autoroute. Il est piloté par la grande mosquée de Québec, celle-là même qui a été frappée par l’attentat du 31 janvier.

« On se bat contre le racisme », affirme sans ambages le promoteur Sylvain Roy du centre funéraire Harmonia. « Ils sont contre l’implantation d’une culture dans un milieu qu’ils veulent conserver 100 % québécois. »

Photo: Francis Vachon Le DevoirSylvain Roy, du centre funéraire Harmonia, offre le terrain derrière lui pour la réalisation du cimetière musulman espéré depuis longtemps par la grande mosquée de Québec.

« Les gens ont véhiculé toutes sortes de faussetés, déplore-t-il. On a dit que les musulmans enterraient leurs morts sans cercueil, trop près de la surface du sol… Tout ça, c’est faux. »

Le voisin immédiat du complexe funéraire, M. Henri Baril, ne voit quant à lui aucun problème à cette cohabitation éventuelle. « Ça ne devrait déranger personne, on a tous droit à un enterrement respectueux », résume-t-il. « De toute façon, que ce soit des musulmans, des Anglais, des Italiens, des Russes, des catholiques ou des non-catholiques, on meurt tous un jour. »

Que voulez-vous, c’est nous qui sommes au bâton avec ça…

Bernard Ouellet, maire de Saint-Apollinaire

Le « Non » pressenti

Sur place, la plupart des gens s’attendent à une victoire du « Non ». « J’ai bien peur que ça ne passe pas, nous a dit le maire. Je serais agréablement surpris si ça fonctionne. »

Le propriétaire d’Harmonia est du même avis. « Si les gens favorables vont voter, ça risque de passer, mais d’habitude, les gens qui sont contre vont plus voter. »

M. Baril, lui, croit que les opposants ne sont « pas si nombreux », mais se font « plus entendre ». Il a aussi trouvé les partisans du « Non » très insistants lors de leur passage chez lui. « C’était presque du harcèlement. Ça ne finissait plus. »

De son côté, la représentante du comité du « Non », Sunny Létourneau, dit n’avoir aucune idée des résultats auxquels on doit s’attendre. Cette commerçante aussi a hâte qu’on passe à autre chose. « Ça crée un malaise terrible dans la municipalité. Ça crée des divisions, des tensions familiales. »

Si certains membres de son groupe n’ont pas hésité à tenir des propos ouvertement racistes dans le débat, Mme Létourneau se défend bien d’en être.

« On ne dit pas non aux musulmans, on dit non au projet actuel de la mosquée [de Québec]. » « Je ne veux pas qu’on associe le comité du “Non” au racisme, parce qu’il y en a seulement quelques-uns. On dit non à un changement de zonage, ce n’est pas juste pour une question religieuse. »

Elle-même dit qu’il ne faut pas « mettre tous les musulmans dans le même panier ». En entrevue, elle s’interroge sur l’expertise d’Harmonia à faire des enterrements et dit craindre que les gens de la grande mosquée de Québec négligent l’entretien de leur cimetière une fois qu’il sera installé.

La grande mosquée de Québec devrait selon elle s’insérer dans un cimetière multiconfessionnel comme à Saint-Augustin, où des familles ont acquis des lots dans un cimetière catholique. Elle a d’ailleurs pris part à l’inauguration du carré musulman à Saint-Augustin.

Or c’est complètement différent, rétorque M. Roy. « La communauté musulmane veut un cimetière confessionnel, une terre sacrée où ils peuvent déposer leurs morts selon les principes du Coran. » Le porte-parole de la mosquée, Mohammed Kesri, a d’ailleurs été choqué d’entendre que l’initiative de Saint-Augustin constituait un cimetière musulman.

Quand on fait remarquer qu’il aurait pu miser sur un lieu plus habitué à la présence d’immigrants que Saint-Apollinaire, M. Kesri rétorque qu’il n’avait pas le choix. « Ça fait 10 ans, 15 ans qu’on cherche. C’est la seule place où on a eu une offre ! » dit-il.

Les résultats du référendum doivent être dévoilés dimanche vers 20 h. Les terrains de ce genre son si ardus à trouver, assure M. Kesri, que même si le « Non » l’emporte, il est prêt à continuer à défendre le projet à Saint-Apollinaire. « Mais c’est sûr que si le 17 il y a un maire quelque part près de Québec qui nous dit que c’est possible d’établir un cimetière musulman ailleurs, ce sera avec plaisir ! »

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In Blow to Tech Industry, Trump Shelves Start-Up Immigrant Rule – The New York Times

2017/07/12 Leave a comment

Building more opportunities for Canada and others:

The Trump administration said it would delay, and probably eliminate down the line, a federal rule that would have let foreign entrepreneurs come to the United States to start companies.

The decision, announced by the federal government on Monday ahead of its official publication on Tuesday, was quickly slammed by business leaders and organizations, especially from the technology sector, which has benefited heavily from start-ups founded by immigrants.

“Today’s announcement is extremely disappointing and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the critical role immigrant entrepreneurs play in growing the next generation of American companies,” Bobby Franklin, the president and chief executive of the National Venture Capital Association, a trade association for start-up investors, said in a statement.

He added that even as other countries are going all out to attract entrepreneurs, “the Trump administration is signaling its intent to do the exact opposite.”

The policy being delayed by the Department of Homeland Security, known as the International Entrepreneur Rule, was to go into effect next week, after being approved by President Obama in January during his final days in office.

The rule was enacted to give foreign entrepreneurs who received significant financial backing for new business ventures the ability to come temporarily to the United States to build their companies. Silicon Valley leaders had praised the rule as a kind of “start-up visa.”

The department said it would delay the start date of the rule until March 14 of next year, during which time it will seek public comments on a plan to rescind the rule. The department said it decided to delay the rule after President Trump signed an executive order on improvements to border security and immigration enforcement on Jan. 25, shortly after taking office.

The order required the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to take action to ensure that “parole authority” — through which the department can temporarily allow individuals into the country without being formally admitted with a visa — be used only on a case-by-case basis and “when an individual demonstrates urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit derived from such parole.”

The International Entrepreneur Rule was designed to use that authority to effectively give a lift to start-ups. Under the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that nearly 3,000 entrepreneurs would be eligible to come to the United States annually under the rule. They were to be granted stays of up to 30 months, with the chance of extending the stays another 30 months if the entrepreneurs met certain criteria.

To qualify, they had to show that they had raised $250,000 or more for their businesses from established American investors or $100,000 or more in grants from government entities.

Steve Case, an investor who was a founder of AOL, blasted the decision on Twitter. “Big mistake,” he wrote. “Immigrant entrepreneurs are job makers, not job takers.”

Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Technology Association, a trade group representing the consumer technology industry, said the delay of the rule would damage American innovation and job creation.

“The 44 immigrant-founded billion-dollar start-ups now in the U.S. have created an average of 760 American jobs per company,” Mr. Shapiro said in a statement. “Without these immigrant entrepreneurs, it is unlikely America would stand as the beacon of innovation that it is today.”

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Canadian tech companies say they value diversity — but what are they doing about it? 

2017/07/12 Leave a comment

Good and needed reporting – particularly surprised with the lack of response of the larger companies (to be fair, Blackberry had bigger survival issues):

After U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January blocking citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S., a long list of Canadian tech companies signed a pledge opposing the ban.

Members of Canada’s tech community saw Trump’s move as a rejection of the diversity on which they felt their industry was built and decided to speak out.

“We believe that this diversity is a source of strength and opportunity,” read the open letter admonishing the ban, which was signed by executives and employees from some of the most well-known companies in the country — BlackBerry, Hootsuite, Shopify and more.

But when CBC News sought to gauge what this commitment to diversity looks like in practice, Canada’s tech community had remarkably little to say.

In May, we asked 31 Canadian technology companies if they collected data on the diversity of their employees, and if so, whether they would share this data with CBC News.

Only two companies — OTTO Motors, the commercial division of Waterloo, Ont.-based Clearpath Robotics, a maker of self-driving warehouse robots, and the Toronto-based investing app Wealthsimple — were willing to do so.

A third company, the Toronto-based online retail marketing startup Hubba, said it was preparing to conduct its first diversity survey and release the results in the coming month. It expects to publish a report on its progress every six months thereafter.

The sheer number of holdouts came as a surprise to Y-Vonne Hutchinson, founder of Oakland, Calif.-based diversity solutions firm ReadySet, in particular, given the number of U.S. companies that have published annual reports since 2014.

“It does make me question their commitment to diversity and inclusion,” said Hutchinson, who is also on the team behind Project Include, which guides tech startups toward more diverse and inclusive practices. The project’s founding members include well-known diversity advocates such as Ellen Pao and Tracy Chou.

“By publishing these numbers, you increase transparency and accountability around how the organization looks and the way in which it prioritizes diversity and inclusion,” Hutchinson said.

Mostly white, mostly male

Many companies in tech and beyond have realized the key to building successful products and services is to have a range of employees — ones who think and look differently from one another — working together to solve problems.

The idea is that employees with varying backgrounds and skills can bring unique perspectives that aren’t necessarily represented by the tech sectors white, male majority.

That’s where diversity reports can help. One way for a company to better understand the types of people it employs — and where the gaps are — is to quantify that information and use it to build more diverse teams.

But that’s not to say measuring the problem alone leads to change. As recently as 2016, we learned that just 145 of Facebook’s nearly 8,500 employees are black. We learned that 12 per cent of Apple employees are Hispanic, versus just four per cent at Google.

And we learned that Uber has an engineering department where only 15 per cent of employees are women — a telling statistic for a company still smarting from a searing indictment of its workplace culture by one of its former engineers and the sexual harassment investigations launched in its wake.

Among the industry’s biggest players, there has been little progress in recent years.

Diversity reports also don’t include as much information as some would like — for example, how long employees stay, which can tell a story of its own, or how many employees are disabled or identify as LGTBQ. In their most basic form, they typically provide a snapshot of how tech’s most-influential companies are doing across job categories in terms of gender and race.

Yet in Canada, there have been no comparable public efforts to date.

Little to say

The companies approached by CBC News ranged from some of the largest and well-known in the country — including BlackBerry, Shopify and Hootsuite — to up-and-coming players such as ecobee, Thalmic and Breather.

We sent each company the following questions:

  • Does your company collect data on the diversity of your employees?
  • ​How is this data collected?
  • Why do you collect this data?
  • Can you provide your company’s most recently collected diversity data to CBC News?
  • Can you offer any details about programs/initiatives to support diversity and inclusion at your company?

The overwhelming majority of companies declined to participate while two of the biggest names in Canadian tech, BlackBerry and Hootsuite, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Provided-Info.png

E-commerce company Shopify said it was still analyzing its employee data and was hoping to have more information to share by the fall “or early next year.”

Others, such as the messaging app Kik and the satellite imaging company Urthecast, said they didn’t have the resources to collect this sort of information and would not say how long it would take to do so.

Many more, including ecobee, Wave, WattPad, Vision Critical, Lightspeed, Bench, TopHat, Vidyard, Sandvine and Hopper, said they didn’t formally collect diversity information.

Source: Canadian tech companies say they value diversity — but what are they doing about it? – Technology & Science – CBC News

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Former Canadian flag, the Red Ensign, gets new, darker life as far-right symbol | National Post

2017/07/12 Leave a comment

Sigh …:

When five members of the anti-immigration, alt-right Proud Boys strode into a Halifax park on Canada Day to confront Indigenous protesters, the Canadian flag they carried was more than 50 years out of date.

With a Union Jack in the corner and a coat of arms on a red background, the Canadian Red Ensign held aloft by one member has largely disappeared from public view since it was replaced in 1965 by the Maple Leaf.

But the Red Ensign, a variation of which Canadian troops fought under in both world wars, has recently taken on a darker symbolism, adopted as Canada’s equivalent of the Confederate flag by some extremists here.

The perversion of the Red Ensign was first observed among white supremacists, who saw it as a throwback to a time when Canadians were overwhelmingly white and of European extraction.

Anti-immigrant protests by the Aryan Guard in Calgary featured the Red Ensign as far back as 2008, and photos showed group members decorated their apartments with the flag alongside a Nazi flag and a Confederate flag.

When John Beattie, who founded the Canadian Nazi Party in the 1960s and remains a white supremacist, ran for municipal office in 2014, a reporter noted that he flew the Red Ensign flag at his home.

 Notorious white nationalist Paul Fromm has campaigned to have the Red Ensign returned as Canada’s flag, calling it “the flag of the true Canada, the European Canada before the treasonous European replacement schemes brought in by the 1965 immigration policies.”

Northern Dawn, a Canadian alt-right website launched last year to defend Western heritage against “chaos,” has used the Red Ensign as its Facebook cover photo. In a July 1 essay on the site, Gerry Neal decried the 1965 replacement of the Red Ensign with the current flag as evidence of a Liberal revision of national symbolism “to eliminate reference to our British heritage.”

Anti-Racist Canada has been tracking the growing popularity of the Red Ensign among extremist groups for years. A spokesperson, who for safety reasons asked to be identified only as Chris, said racists have adopted the Red Ensign “to represent a time when Canada was a ‘white man’s country.’ They view the flag that flies in Canada today as an abomination representing multiculturalism and diversity.

“If you attend any far-right rally or march in Canada, there is a very good chance that, along with ‘white pride,’ Nazi, and Confederate flags, you will also see the Red Ensign being flown rather than the Maple Leaf.”

For the Royal Canadian Legion, which flies the Red Ensign outside its headquarters and includes the flag in its official colour party, the idea that it has been adopted by extremists is hard to stomach.

“There is significant and genuine affection for the Red Ensign in the veterans’ community of Canada for the reason that wars were fought and lives were lost under that flag,” Bill Maxwell, secretary of the Legion’s Poppy and Remembrance Committee, said.

“Canadians fought for the freedoms we enjoy today. I don’t think they fought to have the Red Ensign denigrated in such a manner, quite frankly.”

Caitlin Bailey, executive director of the Canadian Centre for the Great War, in Montreal, said the Red Ensign was a symbol of unity as a young nation went to war. It was the flag that flew over Vimy Ridge to signal its 1917 capture by Canadian troops.

“It’s unfortunate that it has turned into a white nationalist symbol,” she said. “It’s not right, and it flies in the face of what the Red Ensign means.”

C.P. Champion, editor of the history journal the Dorchester Review, recently wrote in support of greater prominence for the Canadian Red Ensign, arguing it should fly permanently at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

He said in an interview that he was disappointed when the self-described traditionalists of the Proud Boys were captured on video provoking Indigenous protesters with the flag.

“It looked like it was trivializing, or treating as a kind of talisman of defiance, a flag that has a much more venerable and mainstream role,” Champion said. “I’ve always thought it’s important not to let traditional symbols be appropriated by fringe elements.”

Source: Former Canadian flag, the Red Ensign, gets new, darker life as far-right symbol | National Post

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Islamic experts work towards national religious school curriculum to apply faith to modern Australian life – ABC News

2017/07/12 Leave a comment

Interesting and challenging initiative, one that applies to many faith-based schooling:

A new high school curriculum will help young people realise there’s no conflict between following Islam and being raised Australian, despite an atmosphere of Islamaphobia, according to young student Gaida Merei.

Ms Merei was part of the pilot program of what will eventually become a national syllabus for Islamic and Arabic studies.

She said young Muslims often find themselves questioning their identity because they don’t have the answers to questions about their faith that are raised in the news.

“It makes them makes you feel like you’re constantly being attacked,” Ms Merei said.

“It could make them [young Muslims] question their belonging and negatively impact the way they view their role in society and whether their contribution has value.”

She said the pilot program gave her a confidence boost.

“It meant I could embrace my identity a lot more confidently, and confirmed that just because I followed the faith, it didn’t conflict with being raised Australian.”

Experts work toward creating national curriculum

Currently, Australian Islamic schools use approved curriculum for core subjects such as maths, science and English, but there is no cohesive religious studies or Arabic program.

In an attempt to change that, leading experts in Islamic education from around the globe are meeting in South Australia to look at creating a standardised national Islamic studies curriculum that would become the first in the western world.

The two-day conference brings together international experts from New Zealand, Indonesia, North America amongst others to discuss a renewed approach to teaching in Islamic schools.

For the last couple of years several Islamic schools have been in the spotlight for governance concerns.

Centre for Islamic Thought and Education, Professor Mohamad Abdalla, said these issues shed light on the need for Islamic schools to re-evaluate future direction.

As part of the conference agenda academics and policy specialist will look at creating a learning program relevant to a modern-day Australian context.

Professor Abdalla said that’s something current Islamic studies in schools lack.

“Given the [political] climate, young Australians may feel they don’t belong to this country, Islamic studies could empower them to feel confident,” he said.

How to applying faith to modern Australia

Ms Merei said from her experiences of attending an Islamic school, students are missing out on education relevant to their lives in Australia.

“The way the religion is followed and applied in modern Australia will differ to the way it is followed in countries in the Middle East or Europe or Asia,” she said.

“It seems like religious teachers force their understanding of the faith from overseas onto young Australians not understanding the issues and struggles we face are extremely different.”

The course explored often misunderstood topics of sharia, women in Islam, terrorism and identity.

Ms Merei said she missed out on learning about these subjects at the Islamic school she attended and now understands the value of learning about them from a credible source.

“They can properly engage in debate and discussion with people who have different understandings and perspectives.

“They’ll be less frustrated when questioned on these topics because they can actually respond.”

She said in today’s world self-proclaimed scholars are brainwashing young people who have little understanding of their faith.

Ms Merei said having a basic understanding of these topics would empower them to see through their politically motivated propaganda.

Professor Abdalla said an Australian curriculum was expected to be ready in the next two to three years.

Source: Islamic experts work towards national religious school curriculum to apply faith to modern Australian life – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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Australia – Multicultural voices deserve to be heard: Tim Soutphommasane responds to ‘Go back to Laos’ comments 

2017/07/12 Leave a comment

 More nasty Australian discourse:

The nation’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane has urged Australians of ethnic backgrounds not to be deterred from speaking out on issues, after a conservative commentator urged the French-born commissioner to “go back to Laos”.

Rowan Dean, the editor of the conservative publication ‘The Spectator’, made the comment on the Sky News program ‘The Outsiders’.

Mr Dean was referring to an article in which the commissioner was featured, critical of the lack of media diversity in Australia.

He accused Dr Soutphommasane of attacking Anglo-Celtics.

“Tim’s parents escaped from Laos via Paris and came and settled here in Australia,” Mr Dean said.

“Where they came, I presume, to enjoy the freedoms, the society, the culture, built by the Anglo-Celtics of Australia.

“I’m sure that they didn’t mind coming to a country that had, where Anglo-Celtics had died giving their lives to create the peace-loving culture that we have.

“Tim, if you don’t like it, join Yassmin [Abdel Magied], hop on a plane and go back to Laos, where I doubt you will find the taxpayer paying you $300,000 a year to lecture bigotry and racism.

“Which is what you are doing by attacking Anglo-Celtics.”

Dr Soutphommasane has been behind a campaign calling for racial and cultural diversity targets in corporations.

Responding to Mr Dean’s comments, the commissioner told SBS World News it was important for a multicultural nation to have multicultural voices in its debates.

“I hope people aren’t deterred from speaking up about issues because they fear they might be targeted for racism,” he said.

“Being from a migrant or non-English speaking background doesn’t disqualify you from enjoying your freedom of speech and from contributing to this country.”

Sky New presenters Kieran Gilbert and Peter Van Onselen have come to the defence of Dr Soutphommasane, emphasising the importance of diversity.

Racism as ‘common sense’

University of Technology sociology professor Andrew Jakubowicz said comments like those of Mr Dean aim to “test the limits of racist hate speech”.

“Each step they take which isn’t resisted or pushed back marks the new limit where the status quo is,” he told SBS World News.

“Every time they can get away with trolling someone of colour to the point where they give up and leave, that’s a great victory.

“And there is no desire at the national level of government to stop them. “

Monash University’s Andy Ruddock, who specialises in media audiences, says the comments are part of a new market for the alternative-right.

“You’ve got to the dangerous point where it’s this reconstruction of racism as common sense,” he told SBS World News.

“It’s just the idea that ‘We’ve embraced multiculturalism as far as we’re willing to go and now you’ve got to get on with it’.

“All of this builds this groundswell of this idea of white civilisation that needs to be defended and therefore it’s ok to say things like this.”

‘Extremist racism being emboldened’

Dr Soutphommasane also spoke out about a series of posters from nationalists groups featuring racist slurs against Asian people and prominent Muslim Australians Yassmin Abdel-Magied and Waleed Aly, saying it’s ‘extremist racism’ being emboldened.

The posters, which also feature the Melbourne ‘Apex Gang’, are from a group calling themselves ‘Aussie Nationalists’ and meant to resemble Pokemon cards.

They attack Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young as a “traitor” who “destroys Australia by promoting self-hatred and open borders”.

Another poster describes Abdel-Magied as a “nuisance feminist” and Aly as “charming yet insidious”.

Dr Soutphommasane said those behind the “racist” posters were being increasingly encouraged by some public discourse.

“The vile posters in Sydney reflect how extremist racism is being emboldened,” he said.

“Some of the public commentary about race and immigration is encouraging vicious racism.

“There’s no place for racial vilification and racial incitement. Our society must hold this racism to account.”

Source: Multicultural voices deserve to be heard: Tim Soutphommasane responds to ‘Go back to Laos’ comments | SBS News

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What is the difference between nationality and citizenship? The Economist

2017/07/11 Leave a comment

Useful clarification of the nuance although less applicable in the Canadian context compared to the UK and USA (where we do not have distinct categories of citizenship – with the major difference being voting rights for non-residents):

IN OCTOBER, when Theresa May’s political future still looked bright, the British prime minister chastised her opponents: “If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what the very word ‘citizenship’ means.” In their defence, the concept of citizenship is complex, especially when compared with the similarly complicated idea of nationality. What is the difference between the two?

In general, to be a national is to be a member of a state. Nationality is acquired by birth or adoption, marriage, or descent (the specifics vary from country to country). Having a nationality is crucial for receiving full recognition under international law. Indeed, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that “Everyone has the right to a nationality” and “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality” but is silent on citizenship. Citizenship is a narrower concept: it is a specific legal relationship between a state and a person. It gives that person certain rights and responsibilities. It does not have to accompany nationality. In some Latin American countries, for example, such as Mexico, a person acquires nationality at birth but receives citizenship only upon turning 18: Mexican children, therefore, are nationals but not citizens.

Similarly, not all American nationals are also American citizens. People born in the “outlying possessions of the United States” can get an American passport and live and work in the United States, but cannot vote or hold elected office. In the past, these “outlying possessions” included Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but in the 20th century Congress gradually extended citizenship to their inhabitants. Today, only American Samoa and Swains Island stand apart: the latter is a tiny atoll in the Pacific ocean, barely more than five meters above sea level, which, in 2010, had a population of just 17.

In Britain, thanks to the legacy of colonialism, the situation is even more complicated. There are six types of British nationality: British citizens, British subjects, British overseas citizens, British overseas territories citizens, British overseas nationals, or British protected persons. Sometimes it is possible to switch categories: for instance, before the British handed Hong Kong over to the Chinese on 1st July 1997, some British overseas territories citizens registered as British overseas nationals. These overseas nationals hold British passports and can receive protection from British diplomats, but they do not have the automatic right to live or work in Britain. So in Britain, there are several types of citizenship and some nationals who are not citizens at all. The targets of Mrs May’s ire are likely to have good company in not fully grasping the meaning of the word “citizenship”.

Source: What is the difference between nationality and citizenship?

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Claims Australian politics and media are ‘too Anglo’ | Daily Mail Online

2017/07/11 Leave a comment

Interesting no comments on political representation, where Australia’s numbers are poor for visible minorities:

The Australian Human Rights Commission has called for more ‘cultural diversity’ in politics and the media because both are currently dominated by ‘Anglo-Celtics’.

In a submission to a Senate committee looking at ‘Strengthening Multiculturalism’, the AHRC urged the government to create a federal agency to collect data and report on diversity within leadership positions.

‘While Australia is highly socially mobile, there is an underrepresentation of cultural diversity in positions of leadership, as well as in the media,’ the AHRC said.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has called for more ‘cultural diversity’ in Australian leadership positions because the default currently remains Anglo-Celtic

The AHRC has urged the federal government to create a federal agency to collect data and report on diversity within leadership positions. Pictured, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

‘The Commission believes that increasing cultural diversity in leadership and in the media would strengthen Australia’s multiculturalism.

‘A lack of diversity in leadership and in the media could conceivably lead to a perception of what it is to be ‘Australian’ that does not reflect our multicultural character.’

The AHRC noted ‘The ethnic and cultural default of leadership remains Anglo-Celtic’ and warned the nation ‘may not be making the most of its cultural diversity’.

Their submission also quoted a study carried out by Screen Australia which found non-Anglo-Celtic groups were being underrepresented on national television dramas.

Source: Claims Australian politics and media are ‘too Anglo’ | Daily Mail Online

Link to submission: (PDF 230 KB)

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Un premier cimetière musulman dans la région de Québec | Le Devoir

2017/07/11 Leave a comment

The less controversial cemetery proposal and one that recognizes Canadian (and Quebec) Muslims:

Près de six mois après l’attentat à la grande mosquée de Québec, un premier cimetière musulman a été officiellement inauguré, dimanche, dans la région de la Capitale-Nationale.

Une portion du cimetière Les Jardins Québec appartenant à l’entreprise funéraire Lépine Cloutier Athos, à Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, sera dorénavant réservée aux défunts de confession musulmane.

En entrevue à La Presse canadienne, le président de Lépine Cloutier Athos, Yvan Rodrigue, a indiqué que 500 lots sont maintenant réservés aux citoyens de foi musulmane et qu’il sera possible d’augmenter ce nombre.

« On a commencé avec une section de 500 lots, mais selon les besoins, nous pourrons agrandir », a-t-il indiqué.

Une solution locale

M. Rodrigue a expliqué que son entreprise a instauré le service afin de « répondre à un besoin de plus en plus criant » pour les gens de l’est du Québec qui n’avaient que deux options — soit être rapatriés dans leur pays d’origine ou être enterrés dans un cimetière musulman à Montréal.

« Il y a des gens qui sont ici depuis plusieurs générations et ce n’est pas toutes les familles qui veulent que le corps soit rapatrié au pays d’origine, donc c’est important qu’ils aient une solution locale », a justifié M. Rodrigue.

L’initiative a toutefois été prise sans la participation du Centre culturel islamique de Québec, qui mène un autre projet de cimetière à Saint-Apollinaire.

Le secrétaire du Centre, Mohamed Kesri, a récemment expliqué au journal Le Soleilque cette nouvelle section de cimetière, à Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, ne comblait pas les besoins de la communauté. Selon lui, la majorité des gens préfèrent savoir que leurs proches sont enterrés à un endroit possédé par la communauté et où les rites et coutumes sont suivis.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

Douglas Todd: Fake jobs fast-track permanent residency for migrants

2017/07/10 Leave a comment

Hard to know full extent of problem compared to overall numbers of Permanent Residents but number of anecdotes and some high profile convictions indicate is an issue:

Canadian employers are creating fake jobs so would-be immigrants can quickly get citizenship.

Immigration “consultants” often arrange the illicit deals, which frequently result in Canadian business owners being paid to fabricate non-existent jobs.

Other times, the immigrants perform actual work, while themselves handing cash to the employer under the table to top up their own salary.

The employers, for their part, devise fraudulent pay stubs so the foreign nationals can “prove” to immigration officials they have needed skills to go to the front of the queue to become a permanent resident of Canada.

“It’s very widespread. I have met a lot of clients who tell me how this is being done underground,” says George Lee, a veteran Burnaby-based lawyer who specializes in immigration law.

Immigration department officials, lawyers, employers, prosecutors and migrants are increasingly providing accounts of how immigration consultants and companies fabricate bogus records so foreign nationals can obtain permanent resident status.

Migrants are handing company owners anywhere from $15,000 to more than $150,000 to create the counterfeit jobs, with immigration consultants pocketing large fees in the bargain.

One immigrant department report said fraud is “commonly associated” with such jobs, called “arranged employment offers.”

“There are lots of cases like this and they’ve been going on for a long time,” said Lee. “In most cases, jobs are needed to become a permanent resident, yet in many cases they are just jobs on paper.”

Both Lee and Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland have been informed by clients, who range from young international students to professionals with degrees, about different deals would-be immigrants strike with employers.

In one standard example, Lee said, a foreign student who received paycheques worth $30,000 a year for part-time work was paid $15,000 by the employer, but also secretly handed over another $15,000 in cash to his boss to prop up his declared salary.

It’s a violation of the law, say Lee and Kurland, to offer cash in exchange for a job.

CBC TV in Saskatchewan last month secretly recorded Bill Sui, of the Vancouver-based immigrant consulting company Vstar International, offering cash to a Prairie retail employer to create jobs for his clients from Mainland China.

Since the news story came out about how Vstar International promised the owner of a Fabricland outlet $15,000 to produce a false job, plus enough to pay the migrant’s salary, people in three other Saskatchewan communities have come forward with similar accounts.

Kurland provided documents in which people complain to the Immigration department about such practices.

In one redacted letter obtained under an access to information request, a Canadian provided details about how her colleague was “getting her cheques and returning cash money to her employer just to show fake employment.”

Kurland, who publishes the newsletter Lexbase, said: “My research uncovers allegations of fake jobs, examples of fake jobs, and complaints by visa officers about fake jobs. It shows that some people who can’t qualify under our rules will pay big money to get their visa illicitly.”

An Iranian-Canadian businessman in Metro Vancouver told Postmedia that each month offshore professionals offer to pay him large sums to cook up artificial jobs in Canada.

“I get this on a regular basis. I’m offered fees from $10,000 to $50,000, plus they will pay their own salaries. So I could bring employees here and have them work for free,” said the businessman, who asked to not be identified.

In a related case, he cited how three years ago an Iranian couple ago went public about paying a B.C. film company $15,000 to come to Canada for jobs that turned out to be non-existent.

The businessman, who said he does not engage in such practices, said any Canadian company with more than six employees can offer a job to a foreign national.

Many job descriptions, which are either bogus or exaggerated to make them seem more “skilled,” are facilitated through immigration consultants, some of whom are not registered, even though registration is supposed to be a requirement in Canada.

Richmond immigration consultant Xun (Sunny) Wang hauled in $10 millionover eight years by producing phoney paycheques and other documents for up to 1,200 clients in arguably the largest immigration fraud case in Canadian history.

Wang’s employees counterfeited thousands of employment documents for clients, most of whom had no real jobs in Canada.

In 2015 Wang, who was not registered as a consultant, was sentenced to seven years in jail.

Source: Douglas Todd: Fake jobs fast-track citizenship for migrants | Vancouver Sun

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

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