C-24 Citizenship Act Committee Hearing – 12 May

2014/05/13 1 Comment

Committee only heard from the first three witnesses as it went in camera for the second hour (and have not seen any updates since then – will update if needed).

Starting with those supporting the Government approach.

Paul Attia of Immigrants For Canada started off by noting the broad base of his organization and the basic view that citizenship should be viewed as a privilege. If earned, it should be available to all. He supported the increased residency requirements but questioned whether 183 days in 4 years out of 6 was sufficient. All citizens should have language proficiency, as language was a key unifier. His association strongly supports revocation for terrorist activity but the process has to be consistent with Canadian values, constitutional democracy (i.e., formal judicial review required). Similarly with respect to criminal convictions outside Canada, provisions should ensure comparability to Canadian norms.

He finished with a hockey analogy (very Canadian!). If you want to where the team sweater, brandishing his Team Canada sweater, you need to meet the requirements (residency), communicate with team members (language) and not lie to or kill your team members (revocation).

Interestingly, despite the claims of his organization having a broad base of support and many members, their website appears to be largely inactive since 2011. He is also a board member of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation appointed by the government.

Those opposed to the bill.

Avvy Yao-Yao Go of the Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic largely reinforced some of the earlier concerns made by CARL and others. Given their clientele, largely refugees and the more vulnerable, her organization strongly opposed the increased residency requirements, removal of time for temporary residents (refugees, live-in caregivers, students, spouses who are conditional Permanent Residents), the intent to reside provision given concerns it could be grounds revocation for fraud, the expansion of language requirements to 55-64, and fee increases. They also oppose revocation for dual citizens, both on substantive reasons (creating differential treatment between mono and dual nationals) as well as process and comparability for foreign convictions to Canadian norms. The overall impact of the bill would be to restrict citizenship in practice, bringing Canada back to an era of discrimination.

Bernie M. Farber and Mitchell J. Goldberg spoke for the Jewish Refugee Action Network (J-RAN), starting off by noting that many refugees when treated with fairness and compassionate become productive citizens, building their lives in Canada. There should be a reasonable path for refugees to become citizens. J-RAN was deeply concerned about the impact on the fee increases (a “cash grab”), increasing language requirements affecting children (hard to see, they will have been in school) and grandparents, and removal of credit for pre-Permanent Residents time. They expressed concern over the intent to reside provision given Charter section 6 (mobility rights) as well as the practical reality that circumstances change for work, study or family reasons. While they have no sympathy for terrorists and criminals, they do not support revocation (“banishment”); such provisions are “unconstitutional and unjust” and such cases should be handled by the criminal justice system. Revocation in cases of fraud was supported.

In questioning, some nuances in positions emerged. In response to CPC/Menegakis, Attia noted need for greater clarity on the intent to reside provision. Liberal McCallum probed further, stating that the Minister had been unclear. Attia confirmed this lack of clarity, stating that the “devil was in the details” on what exactly it meant and how it would be enforced.

There was more interaction between witnesses and MPs who had different perspectives. CPC/Shory pressed J-RAN on revocation, given that terrorism struck at the “bedrock of Canadian identity.” Goldberg picked up on the hockey analogy, “if a heinous act committed against a hockey player, they are penalized, not banished.”

CPC/Shory noted that only 15 percent use pre-Permanent Residents time towards citizenship. NDP/Sitsabaiesan continued to press on this issue with J-RAN and Avvy Go who reaffirmed their positions and noted the apparent contradiction between encouraging Canadian Experience Class immigration while not providing credit for pre-Permanent Residents time.

Witnesses scheduled but not heard included:

Canadian War Brides (Melynda Jarratt,Don Chapman (Lost Canadians)

Amandeep Singh, Singh Thind & Associates

Narindarpal Singh Kang, Law Firm of Kang & Company

I have created a top-level tab for C-24 briefings for those interested (note that not all organizations post their briefs or respond to requests for same) and add a link to transcripts when available (usually about 2 weeks after meetings).

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Canada must see immigration as a competitive edge – Royal Bank of Canada CEO

2014/05/13 Leave a comment

Strong message on immigration, diversity and inclusion from the CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada, Gordon Nixon:

Our diverse population is only an advantage to the extent we are inclusive. Full inclusion means everyone feels enabled to bring their perspectives, knowledge and experiences to the table. Diversity, together with inclusion, plays a central role in driving productivity, innovation and growth.

We are building the next phase in the growth of our great country in an era of economic interdependence, shifting demographics and wars for talent. A work force with global experience is a competitive advantage. International experience is an asset to business. Too often, we hear that newcomers with no Canadian experience would be hard to fit into the Canadian work force. In truth, international experiences relate directly to the modern Canadian context.

Business leaders – no matter the size of the company or the industry – should play an active part. A simple place to start is in guiding your company to increase diversity and to be inclusive. We all have and are impacted by systemic and unconscious biases; rather than acting as if they don’t exist, we must find ways to identify them and develop strategies to compensate for them.

Canada must see immigration as a competitive edge – The Globe and Mail.

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Jayson Myers: Building a better foreign workers program | National Post

2014/05/13 Leave a comment

From Jason Myers, CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) on Temporary Foreign Workers and some sensible recommendations (these are not fast food workers) to improve the program, including pathways to residency and implicitly citizenship:

We recommend that a new foreign skilled worker program be introduced, incorporating:

  • an improved national jobs bank that includes employment insurance claimants;

  • a broadly defined classification of skilled workers that’s based on industry needs, rather than on pre-specified qualifications;

  • an “above normal” wage threshold for temporary employment;

  • streamlined and consistently administered application and approval processes;

  • additional flexibility for employers located outside major urban centres, or in regions of rapid economic growth; and

  • improved pathways to residency, in order to give temporary foreign skilled workers better opportunities to become permanent contributors to the Canadian economy.

Jayson Myers: Building a better foreign workers program | National Post.

Meanwhile, Quebec wants an exemption from the federal moratorium.

Interesting that no cases of abuse or concern about Temporary Foreign Workers in food service industries, given Quebec’s overall higher unemployment rate. Quebec had about 44,000 foreign workers in 2012, about 13 percent of the Canadian total (Quebec’s percentage of Canada’s population is almost 24 percent):

“We are a bit worried about the impact of the moratorium on our restaurants and on our small and medium-sized businesses,” he said Sunday.

“We are ready to work with the federal government to tighten the rules of the program if need be.”

Weil is also planning to make the same case to Employment Minister Jason Kenney, who oversees the temporary foreign workers program, McMahon said.

A spokeswoman for Kenney said there are no immediate plans to lift the ban, in Quebec or anywhere else.

“Abuse of the temporary foreign worker program will not be tolerated,” Alexandra Fortier said in an email.

“Allegations of misuse will continue to be investigated and any employer found to have violated the rules will face serious consequences.”

Quebec wants exemption from temporary foreign worker moratorium on restaurants – The Globe and Mail.

Québec réclame la levée du moratoire sur l’embauche de travailleurs étrangers | Le Devoir

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Justice Canada chops research budget by $1.2-million – The Globe and Mail

2014/05/13 1 Comment

Worrisome. Not the decision itself to cut research funding as much as the reason: not liking the results, and wanting to align research to government policy, rather than understanding of society. While public service research sometimes was less neutral and impartial than it should have been (had my experience in multiculturalism research in this regard), this change abandons any claim to independent and objective research.

Abdication of “fearless advice” role of public service. Hopefully this will provoke more serious reflection among senior ranks of the public service rather than the rather shallow Destination 2020 initiative:

The result is a diminished research capacity, which now must be better controlled from the top to ensure it supports the government policies, says the report.

“The review confirmed that there have been examples of work that was not aligned with government or departmental priorities,” says the October 2013 document, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Some past projects have “at times left the impression that research is undermining government decisions.”

The report did not cite specific studies, but a department report last year on public confidence in the justice system appeared to be at odds with the Conservative government’s agenda.

Researcher Charlotte Fraser found many Canadians lacked confidence in the courts and prison system, but suggested it was the result of misunderstanding rather than any failures in the system, and that education could rectify the problem.

Justice Canada chops research budget by $1.2-million – The Globe and Mail.

Le budget de la recherche en droit fond de 1,2 million (La Presse)

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Why Canada has a serious data deficit

2014/05/13 1 Comment

More on the importance of good data by Barrie McKenna in the Globe’s Report on Business:

Prof. Gross [the C.D. Howe Institute researcher responsible for their study on Temporary Foreign Workers and their effect on increasing unemployment in AB and BC] acknowledged that perfect data is “very costly.”

So is bad data.

Employment Minister Jason Kenney recently imposed a moratorium on the use of temporary foreign workers in the restaurant industry, following embarrassing allegations of misuse by some McDonald’s franchise and other employers. And he has promised more reforms to come.

But who is to say that restaurants need imported foreign labour any less than hotels or coal mines, which are unaffected by the moratorium? And without better information, Mr. Kenney may compound his earlier decision to expand the program with an equally ill-considered move to shrink it.

The government’s troubles with the temporary foreign workers program is a classic case of bad data leading to dubious decision-making. Until recently, the government has relied on inflated Finance department job vacancy data, compiled in part by tracking job postings on Kijiji, a free classified-ad website. Statscan, meanwhile, was reporting that the national job vacancy rate was much smaller, and falling.

The problem goes way beyond temporary foreign workers. And it’s a data problem of the government’s own making. Ottawa has cut funds from important labour market research, slashed Statscan’s budget more savagely than many other departments, and scrapped a mandatory national census in favour of a less-accurate voluntary survey.

The Canadian government has demonstrated “a lack of commitment” to evidence-based decision-making and producing high-quality data, according to a global report on governance released last week by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a leading German think tank. The report ranked Canada in the middle of the pack and sliding on key measures of good governance compared with 40 other developed countries

One of the disadvantages of being in government for almost 10 years is that decisions which may have appeared to be cost-free can come back and haunt you.

Why Canada has a serious data deficit – The Globe and Mail.

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Long-form census: Internal survey blasts feds for missing database

2014/05/12 Leave a comment

No surprise that there are continued complaints regarding the quality of data when the government replaced the mandatory census with the voluntary national household survey.

One would hope that the abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker program, in part due to policy choices but also due to incomplete labour market information would teach the government the consequences of quality data:

Last year, the department consulted more than 80 users in four cities about the website and its trove of newly released digital information — and heard widespread feedback about data missing because of the demise of the mandatory long-form census.

“At four of the five meetings, large numbers of stakeholders raised concerns about the termination of the mandatory long form census,” says a report on the consultations, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

The complaints echo an audit last week from the auditor general of Canada, who found the voluntary National Household Survey in 2011 cost taxpayers $22 million more than the mandatory long-form census it replaced — and produced far less reliable data.

‘Large numbers of stakeholders raised concerns about the termination of the mandatory long form census.’

Statistics Canada eventually withheld the release of survey data for one of every four municipalities and other census sub-divisions because of the poor quality of the numbers.

“As a result of data not being released due to quality concerns, potential users of this data for approximately 25 per cent of geographic areas do not have reliable National Household Survey data available for their use,” said Michael Ferguson’s report.

Long-form census: Internal survey blasts feds for missing database – Politics – CBC News.

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What Science Says About Race and Genetics | Nicholas Wade

2014/05/12 Leave a comment

An excerpt from Nicholas Wade’s book, A Troublesome Inheritance, on the possible links between evolution, societies and genetics.

Racism and discrimination are wrong as a matter of principle, not of science. That said, it is hard to see anything in the new understanding of race that gives ammunition to racists. The reverse is the case. Exploration of the genome has shown that all humans, whatever their race, share the same set of genes. Each gene exists in a variety of alternative forms known as alleles, so one might suppose that races have distinguishing alleles, but even this is not the case. A few alleles have highly skewed distributions but these do not suffice to explain the difference between races. The difference between races seems to rest on the subtle matter of relative allele frequencies. The overwhelming verdict of the genome is to declare the basic unity of humankind.

….

Civilizations may rise and fall but evolution never ceases, which is why genetics may play some role alongside the mighty force of culture in shaping the nature of human societies. History and evolution are not separate processes, with human evolution grinding to a halt some decent interval before history begins. The more that we are able to peer into the human genome, the more it seems that the two processes are delicately intertwined.

A more reasoned and nuance approach that the “triple package” approach. Margaret Wente has a less nuanced summary of Wade’s arguments (What if race is more than a social construct?) but better to read this complete excerpt.

What Science Says About Race and Genetics | TIME.com.

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Women From China, Taiwan Pay $30,000 To Give Birth In Bay Area, Get U.S. Citizenship For Child « CBS San Francisco

2014/05/12 Leave a comment

No hard numbers (“growing numbers,” “dozens of agencies”) but interesting. Certainly parents are thinking ahead; whether the children eventually move to the US when the grow up will depend on the relative opportunities between China, Taiwan and the US:

Women From China, Taiwan Pay $30,000 To Give Birth In Bay Area, Get U.S. Citizenship For Child « CBS San Francisco.

Filed under Birthright Citizenship, Citizenship Tagged with ,

Guess who’s not coming to dinner: Why Canada’s influential Terroir talks needs to diversify – The Globe and Mail

2014/05/12 Leave a comment

A reminder that we have a way to go. Starts with awareness:

Of the 89 presenters named on Terroir’s 2104 program, I count just eight who might not check the box for “white” on a census. It’s worse if you look at the contingent of Canadian chefs. Of the 28 listed, by my count there are no blacks, no Arabs, no Filipinos, none of the Sri Lankans who staff at least a third of the kitchens in this city – the list could go on and on and on. That program has just three non-white Canadian chefs on it. Only two of them, Torontonian Scott Vivian (his mother is from India), and Duncan Ly, a Vietnamese-Canadian chef from Calgary, have been given speaking roles.

…

And so this isn’t about who’s coming. It’s about who’s not. It is not so hard to find top chefs and restaurateurs with stories and skills worth sharing and who also happen to not be white, especially not when you’re sourcing guests from around the world. It’s not hard at all if you look.

Guess who’s not coming to dinner: Why Canada’s influential Terroir talks needs to diversify – The Globe and Mail.

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Creux historique pour le PQ | Le Devoir

2014/05/12 Leave a comment

Pretty amazing polling results on the PQs fall. Will require much more serious internal PQ reflection than to date:

Les résultats détaillés montrent l’ampleur de la côte à remonter pour le PQ. Ainsi, chez les francophones, le parti est troisième (23 %) derrière la CAQ (33 %) et les libéraux (29 %). Même chose en ce qui a trait au vote des femmes (17 %).

Pire : le Parti québécois est désormais le quatrième choix des électeurs de moins de 45 ans. Québec solidaire recueille en effet plus d’appuis dans les échantillons basés sur l’âge des répondants. Il n’y a que les 55-64 ans qui sont plus réceptifs au message péquiste. « Une question s’impose clairement, dit Jean-Marc Léger : est-ce que le PQ a été le parti d’une génération ? »

La conjoncture — défaite récente, parti sans chef — explique une partie des résultats de ce sondage [quoique le Bloc québécois n’avait pas perdu de points dans le premier sondage suivant sa débandade électorale, en mai 2011]. Mais il y a plus, dit M. Léger. « C’est normal que le parti descende un peu, mais pas aussi rapidement. C’est comme si les gens sentaient que le parti a perdu son âme : on entend des militants et des députés renier la charte de la laïcité, renier l’ancienne chef, renier la démarche constitutionnelle… »

Autre résultat peu encourageant pour le Parti québécois : moins d’un tiers (32 %) des répondants du sondage aurait voté pour la souveraineté du Québec si un référendum avait eu lieu dans les derniers jours. « C’est faible, remarque M. Léger. On a souvent des appuis autour de 40 % en posant cette question. » Et même si le PQ faisait la promesse de ne pas tenir de référendum dans un premier mandat, il ne profiterait « d’aucun impact positif », indique M. Léger.

Creux historique pour le PQ | Le Devoir.

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