Immigration express entry: 5 things you need to know

2014/12/12 Leave a comment

The most interesting part to observe, in the short-term, will be the commitment to transparency (not a strong point for the Government), the last comment, about “an aggressive” ad campaign, is little surprise given the Government’s normal approach, particularly acute in an election year:

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander has said individuals with a job offer or a provincial nomination will be “picked first” and that the first “invitations to apply” for permanent residency will be sent out by the last week of January.

Manicom told MPs during the Commons committee that there will be a “draw” every two weeks.

The senior official said applicants will be able to see how they are ranked against each other in the pool. “We are very highly transparent,” he said.

Once a skilled immigrant has received an offer to apply for permanent residency, he or she would have 60 days to accept or decline the offer. If the applicant doesn’t receive an offer of permanent residency after 12 months, he or she will have to start the process again.

… Anita Biguzs, the deputy minister for citizenship and immigration, said the government has budgeted $32.5 million in total funding for express entry.

Of that, $6.9 million has been allotted so the department can align its IT system in preparation for the launch of the new system.

Manicom told MPs to expect a “very aggressive” ad campaign in 2015.He was not asked how much the ad buy would cost taxpayers.

Immigration express entry: 5 things you need to know – Politics – CBC News.

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CIA torture report: Why Canada can’t claim innocence

2014/12/12 Leave a comment

Both Wark and Juneau-Katsuya make valid points about likely Canadian complicity:

However, as Juneau-Katsuya points out, intelligence Canada shared with the CIA led to the torture of a number of Canadians.

“That’s exactly what took place with Maher Arar, that’s exactly what took place with Omar Khadr, that’s exactly what took place with tons of other people,” says Juneau-Katsuya, who calls Harper’s stance “a very hypocritical position.”

Harper s dismissive tone about the Senate report obscures how closely Canadian intelligence works with its American counterparts, says Juneau-Katsuya.

He says that Canadian spies have a “phenomenal” relationship with the CIA. Not only do they share intelligence related to foreign threats, but CSIS has liaison officers that work in CIA headquarters, and vice versa.

Given their close working relationship, did Canadian intelligence agents witness any of the CIA’s torture tactics?

“It would be speculation on my part,” says Juneau-Katsuya, “but I think its very likely.”

He adds that “some [Canadian agents] might have had the wise reflex not to be there and simply say, I wasnt present.”

But the bottom line is the Canadian government “cannot deny the fact that we were aware of the practices.”

CIA torture report: Why Canada can’t claim innocence – CBC News – Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News.

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Not a Canadian citizen? Why you should think about applying now

2014/12/11 Leave a comment

After the rules change Before the rules change
If you are 14 to 64 years old, you will have to:
  • show language ability in English or French, and
  • prove your knowledge of Canada in English or French
Only if you are 18 to 54 years old do you have to show language ability and knowledge of Canada.
And you may be able to have an interpreter in your own language to help you prove your knowledge of Canada.
You can apply only after you have lived in Canada as a permanent resident for:
  • at least 4 out of the last 6 years, and
  • at least 183 days each year for at least 4 out of the last 6 years
You can apply after you have lived in Canada for 3 out of the last 4 years.
And you may be able to include time that you lived here before becoming a permanent resident.
Only time when you are in Canada will count as living in Canada. Time when you are outside Canadamay still count if your permanent home is here.
You need to file your income tax returns for 4 out of the last 6 years. You do not have to show that you have filed income tax returns.
You must plan to continue living in Canada. If you leave Canada and live somewhere else, the government may be able to take away your Canadian citizenship. You do not have to plan to live in Canada. If you become a Canadian citizen before the rules change, you cannot lose your citizenship only because you live somewhere else in the future.

 Another example of organizations providing advice re the impact of the changes to the Citizenship Act, and why it is important to get applications in before the coming into force next summer.

 Their table above is particularly clear, although their interpretation of the ‘intent to reside’ provision, while supported by most lawyers, differs from Minister Alexander’s clear statements that the provision only applies during the application process, not once one is a citizen:

Not a Canadian citizen? Why you should think about applying now | CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario / Éducation juridique communautaire Ontario).

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Mohawk bloodline rule is indefensible – Simpson

2014/12/11 Leave a comment

Jeffrey Simpson on the bloodline rule:

The band council argues that mixed relationships dilute the Mohawk blood line. The council insists that residents be pure Mohawk, defined as having four Mohawk great-grandparents. But in other contexts, this bloodline business has a long and tattered history. It has led to grievous examples of racial discrimination and pseudoscience.

Mohawk bloodline rule is indefensible – The Globe and Mail.

Lawrence Hill, in his Massey Lectures, Blood, takes a similar line:

Let’s drop the idea of what you are not allowed to be, or to do, because of who you are, but encourage each other to look for the good in our blood, and in our ancestry. We should let hatred and divisiveness spill from us as if it were bad blood, and search for more genuine and caring ways to imagine human identity and human relations.

Lawrence Hill on the power of blood – Life – Macleans.ca

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Refugees most likely to become Canadian citizens | Indo-Canadian Voice

2014/12/11 Leave a comment

Under-reported, if at all, by the mainstream media.

The overall naturalization rate, as per the Census and the National Household Survey, is 85 percent and not quite sure of the reasons for the discrepancy (although makes sense citizenship more important for refugees than others):

Refugees are much more likely to become citizens than family class and other immigrants, according to a February 2014 internal report in the Citizenship and Immigration Department.

Lexbase, Canada’s foremost immigration publication and the largest information network for Canadian immigration practitioners, said the report noted: “Citizenship take-up rates differ depending on the admission class (family, economic or refugee) at time of landing. Refugees who arrived between 1991 and 1995 (6 to 10 years in Canada in 2001) recorded a citizenship take-up rate of 85%; those who landed in 1996 or 1997 had a take-up rate of 59% by 2001.“

In contrast, family class immigrants – who tend to be older at the time of landing than other immigrants recorded the lowest citizenship take-up rates: 60% among those who have lived in Canada for 6 to 10 years and 30% among the newly eligible.”

The report noted: “The differences in take-up rates by admission class can be explained in large part by the source countries, the circumstances leading to immigration, and age at admission. For instance, the vast majority of refugees come from developing countries, and are most likely to become naturalized Canadians.

“As well, immigrants who enter as refugees are likely to leave their source country under adverse conditions and hence are more likely to migrate on a permanent basis. Becoming Canadian could be seen as the final step of their migration.”

Refugees most likely to become Canadian citizens | Indo-Canadian Voice.

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A Muslim Message to Those Leaving Canada to Join ISIS | Shahla Khan Salter

2014/12/11 Leave a comment

Some of the anti-extremist messaging by Canadian Muslims:

If you are a Canadian Muslim, considering joining ISIS, here are a list of sins you will commit if you do:

– You will murder the People of the Book, mainly Iraqi and Syrian Christians and others, without justification.

– You will destroy churches.

– You will kill innocent Muslims, Sunni, Shia and others — including seniors, the disabled, women and children of all ages.

– You will destroy mosques, Sunni and Shia.

– You will remove people, Muslims, Christians and others, including those many consider “believers” from their homes and promote the exodus of innocent families from the region to refugee camps, where many suffer and some die, including seniors, children and pregnant women.

– You will dishonour your parents, particularly your mother, upon whom there is the duty to regard in the highest honour, regardless of her faith.

– You will engage in acts of rape and child abuse, none of which is permissible.

– You will act in contravention of the laws of your country, the nation of Canada.

– You will imitate the oppression perpetuated by the established tribes of Mecca, during the period of jahiliyya, against our Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It was as a result of such oppression that our Holy Prophet (pbuh) joined with Jews, Christians and pagans to stop such oppression, as our Iraqi and Syrian brothers and sisters, against ISIS, are doing now.

As well, many Muslim Canadians, including peaceful conservative ones, those you likely consider “strong” Muslims, will no longer consider you part of the Muslim Ummah. As a result of your expressed hatred for much of humankind, you will be considered a kufr, subjected to takfir.

A Muslim Message to Those Leaving Canada to Join ISIS | Shahla Khan Salter.

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Diversity on boards means more than gender

2014/12/10 Leave a comment

More on corporate board director diversity (or lack thereof) by Anita Anand and Vijay Jog (see earlier post Women gain on corporate boards but visible minority representation dips):

In light of these arguments in favour of board diversity and given the ever changing mix of the Canadian population in general, one might think visible minority directors would be more present on Canadian corporate boards. But this is not the case. We have found they represent 5.5 per cent of directors of TSX-listed firms (and less if certain foreign-owned firms are excluded). Visible minorities represent only 4.2 per cent of those graduating from director-education programs, some of whom have previous board experience as an admission requirement.

The percentage of women is much higher in both cohorts; white women comprise 26 per cent of graduates of director programs but only 12 per cent of public company board members. Thus corporate boards have much fewer visible minority directors relative to both white women and white men.

But does diversity even matter? Prior academic research has been somewhat inconclusive. We find that firms with white male boards do not show significantly better performance than firms with boards comprised of females and visible minorities. We do not claim that these results show causality since it is possible that firms that demonstrate superior stock performance are forward-thinking or that investors respond positively to such proactive measures. At the very least, our results suggest that there is no performance deterioration by having a diverse board.

Visible minorities contribute significantly to GDP and represent a high growth segment of the population. Let’s open up the conversation about board diversity beyond gender parity and consider whether boards should bear some demographic similarity to the society in which the corporation operates. Corporate Canada will need to face this issue at some point: why not now?

Diversity on boards means more than gender | Toronto Star.

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John Maguire ISIS video is silly, say radicalization experts

2014/12/10 Leave a comment

I think the experts have it about right. The videos may resonate with some who are already down the radicalization path but are unlikely to trigger interest in radicalization:

[Amarnath] Amarasingam says ISIS’s belief that it can win followers by throwing a few local references into its boilerplate message about Muslim grievances is ineffective.

Theyre “making an argument from deep inside the jihadi narrative,” hoping that it will resonate with westerners “who don’t believe in that narrative.”

The fact that Maguire emphasizes that he was a “bright” student with a “strong” grade-point average in university is ISIS’s attempt to counter the idea that Westerners who join the group suffer from mental problems, says Paul Bramadat, director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria.

Maguire appears to be challenging “the notion that only terribly alienated, dislocated, or mentally disturbed people might be attracted to this particular religious or political ideology,” says Bramadat, who is also the co-editor of the book Religious Radicalization in Canada and Beyond.

“By underlining his very ordinary upbringing – the hockey, the music – he is saying, Look, I have been a normal member of Canadian culture. I know what I am talking about. I am not an outsider.”

But any right-thinking person can see through it, says [Robert] Heft. “Who is [the message] really going to? A young, uneducated, sometimes depressed and unstable person in society.

“Theres nobody who is a balanced person who says, Wow, he’s fighting a great cause.”

John Maguire ISIS video is silly, say radicalization experts – CBC News – Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News.

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UNHCR counting on Canada to increase commitment to Syrian refugees

2014/12/10 Leave a comment

Will Canada respond? Will Canada meet its existing commitment?:

“Canada is a very important country to the UNHCR not only for the support it gives to refugee programs but also for the leadership that it provides in terms of international standards of global protection,” De Angelis said.

“This is another occasion for countries who have a leading role in global refugee protection to really show their strength.

”The UNHCR is making a pitch at meetings in Geneva on Tuesday for countries to help resettle more than 100,000 refugees from the Syrian civil war over the next two years.

The plea follows formal requests that began in 2013 for direct help getting some of the most vulnerable people out of refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

That year, Canada agreed to take in 1,300 refugees.

Private sponsorship groups were allotted 1,100 spots and the government agreed to directly resettle the rest.

While the government’s promise to settle 200 people has been met and exceeded, only 163 people being sponsored by private groups have made it to Canada as of the middle of November.

UNHCR counting on Canada to increase commitment to Syrian refugees – The Globe and Mail.

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Did Sweden Opening Its Borders Backfire?

2014/12/10 Leave a comment

Interesting analysis by a number of commentators on Sweden’s integration and political challenges in accepting so many refugees:

For much of modern Scandinavian history, immigration was rare. Those who did move to Stockholm or Oslo came from neighboring or other European countries—places with relatively similar cultural habits and understandings. Prior to the 1980s, for instance, Swedes often viewed the word “immigrant” as meaning Finns who had left the Soviet Union. …

In recent decades, Sweden has seen a large influx of immigrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and other non-Western countries. The Norface Research Programme on Migration finds that the children of uneducated, non-Western parents have considerably less success in school than their native counterparts in Sweden (and Denmark); once again, the gap is wider than that between native and non-Western immigrant students in the United States.

Worse, and unlike in the United States, things don’t improve over generations. Many immigrants have arrived too recently to trace their children’s trajectory, but the most recent poverty rates for children with a Turkish background born in Sweden are three times higher than they are for native children. Unemployment and poverty are much higher in the immigrant group.

“Poverty in Sweden has taken on an ethnic dimension,” Björn Halleröd, a sociology professor at the University of Gothenburg, told the Local, an English-language Swedish newspaper. Sweden remains egalitarian by international standards, but inequality grew by a third between 1985 and the late 2000s—faster than in any other OECD country.

Did Sweden Opening Its Borders Backfire? « The Dish.

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