Canada welcomes more new Canadians – Citizenship Stats

The usual monthly update on citizenship processing, showing CIC on track to eliminating the backlog through a doubling of the number of new Canadians:

Approximately 33,700 people from 199 countries became Canadian citizens at citizenship ceremonies held across Canada in March 2014. This is almost twice as many compared to March 2013 when 17,089 people were granted citizenship across Canada…

So far in 2014, Canada has welcomed more than 75,900 new citizens at 759 ceremonies across Canada. Comparatively, in the first three months of 2013, Canada welcomed 35,320 new Canadians.

Canada welcomes more new Canadians – Canada News Centre.

Still would like to see a commitment to service standards!

Baroness Warsi Speaks Out On Islamophobia, Richard Dawkins, Bingo Posters And ‘Racist’ Ukip

A largely positive piece on Baroness Warsi, UK Minister for Faith in the Communities Department:

The peer herself doesn’t seem bothered by the brickbats. “Politics is a pretty ruthless place and it’s not the kind of place which you’d choose for a good work-life balance,” she tells me, with a shrug of her shoulders, during our chat at Lancaster House. “If you’re going to come into politics and try not to upset anybody, and stand on the sidelines, then you might as well go off and be an accountant. I came into politics to make a difference.”

Baroness Warsi Speaks Out On Islamophobia, Richard Dawkins, Bingo Posters And ‘Racist’ Ukip.

Le choc, la charge, la charte | Vincent Marissal

A lengthy and thoughtful analysis of how the PQ got to this point and how central the proposed Charter is to its strategy. One of the best overviews I have seen:

Selon une source qui a assisté à des discussions à de très hauts niveaux au sein du gouvernement Marois, la suite du virage identitaire était déjà décidée: une fois majoritaire, le PQ adopte la Charte telle que présentée, sans clause dérogatoire. Elle sera contestée et battue par une cour fédérale, ce qui fournirait un puissant levier pour la souveraineté.

C’était le plan. La réalité, pour le moment, c’est que Pauline Marois doit se défendre tous les jours de vouloir organiser un troisième référendum, et la Charte a été reléguée à un tout petit rôle dans la présente campagne.

Le choc, la charge, la charte | Vincent Marissal | Actualités.

De l’exclusion des expatriés | Le Devoir

An opinion piece by Eric Laporte on voting rights for expatriates and a good short comparison table. I am comfortable with Canada’s five-year rule. While one can keep in contact with the politics and culture back home, the reality is that one does become more distant over time and, apart from the US, most expatriates pay taxes to the country they reside in, not their country of citizenship. No representation without taxation.

Un Américain, un Français, un Allemand, un Britannique est fier que l’un des leurs aille à l’étranger pour représenter son pays et aussi, ce qui est le plus important, aille à l’étranger pour aller chercher de la nouvelle expertise. C’est comme ça que les États-Unis se sont bâtis, en allant chercher l’expertise étrangère, non seulement avec l’immigration, mais aussi avec les contacts à l’international. On ne peut pas donner de signe plus clair à un citoyen qu’on ne le soutient pas qu’en lui enlevant ses droits démocratiques.

De l’exclusion des expatriés | Le Devoir.

“Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence”

An interesting column from Errol Morris on evidence, using the logic of Martin Rees with respect to the existence or not of extraterrestrial life (“absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence”) to the question during the Bush Administration on whether or not weapons of mass destruction existed or not.

Part of the evidence vs anecdote challenge. Public service evidence on macro-trends can conflict with anecdotes from the political level, but the political level could also argue that the absence of evidence in our studies and research did not mean it did not exist. But still, better to operate with as sound evidence as possible:

What do I take from this? To me, progress hinges on our ability to discriminate knowledge from belief, fact from fantasy, on the basis of evidence. It’s not the known unknown from the known known, or the unknown unknown from the known unknown, that is crucial to progress. It’s what evidence do you have for X, Y or Z? What is the justification for your beliefs? When confronted with such a question, Rumsfeld was never, ever able to come up with an answer.

The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld (Part 4) – NYTimes.com.

Intégrisme: la «montée» imaginaire – et les Janettes

Pretty damning indictment of those warning of a rapid increase in fundamentalism in Quebec. Interesting, most requests for religious accommodation come from Christians.

Dernier indicateur : l’avis des chercheurs qui étudient les minorités religieuses du Québec ou les côtoient. Ceux qu’a interviewés Le Soleil – soit, hormis M. Rousseau, Pauline Côté, de l’Université Laval, et Micheline Milot, de l’UdeM – sont unanimes : il n’y a pas le moindre signe d’une montée de l’intégrisme musulman au Québec. Et les termes qu’ils emploient laissent peu de place au doute : «bonhomme 7 heures», «scandaleux», «propos alarmistes et exorbitants», «création étatique de la peur de l’autre», etc.

Intégrisme: la «montée» imaginaire | Jean-François Cliche | Élections québécoises.

Shame on the PQ for not dissociating themselves from the comments of Janette Bertrand (background here):

La cofondatrice du mouvement pro charte « Les Janette » y est allée d’un exemple pour illustrer la nécessité, selon elle, de se doter de cette législation, qui prévoit notamment un encadrement des demandes d’accommodements raisonnables.

Imaginons, a-t-elle dit, que « deux hommes » arrivent à la piscine de son édifice à logements montréalais, et que la vue de femmes dans l’eau leur déplaît.

« Bon, imaginons qu’ils partent, qu’ils vont voir le propriétaire, qui est très heureux d’avoir beaucoup de, de… c’est les étudiants de McGill riches qui sont là, et puis, ils demandent ‘Bon, on va avoir une journée’, bon, alors ils payent », a-t-elle suggéré.

« Et là dans quelques mois, c’est eux qui ont la piscine tout le temps. Ben c’est ça, le ‘grugeage, c’est ça dont on a peur et c’est ça qui va arriver s’il n’y a pas de charte », a lancé Mme Bertrand.

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/404117/janette-bertrand-vilipende-les-integristes

Jonathan Kay: The space between the hijab and niqab is where our anxieties lie

Jonathan Kay on the contrast between the hijab and the niqab, following the experience of a young non-Muslim woman wearing a hijab for a week. I think he largely has it right on the contrast between the hijab being compatible with integration, the niqab not:

One of the effects of the niqab is that it strips away all of the informal social cues that we typically rely on when we talk to people: the smiles, raised eyebrows, furrowed brows and such that tell us if our jokes are funny or not, our stories interesting or not, our presence welcome or not. The Burqa signals to the non-burqa-wearer that, to the extent he is capable of arousing any emotion at all, it is of the negative variety. In such a situation, most of us non-burqa folks are likely to put on a nervous smile, say something harmless, and get any necessary social or commercial interaction over with as quickly as possible so as not to induce the fear of sexual predation that, the niqab’s existence implicitly signals, is but thinly suppressed in all of us.

Since 9/11, all Western societies have become obsessed with the way Muslim women dress. (Indeed, in parts of Quebec, it has become a sort of full-blown neurosis.) But Rawhani misunderstands the issue if she thinks that this is really about the hijab. It is about our basic, socially felt human need to see the faces  of those we interact with. The fact that we politely tolerate those who live behind masks bespeaks Canadian civility. But it does not mean the underlying practice is in any way healthy or desirable.

Jonathan Kay: The space between the hijab and niqab is where our anxieties lie | National Post.

Is multiculturalism stifling bilingualism? | Globalnews.ca

National Household Survey data on languages spoken in Canada will be released Wednesday, and will likely provoke debate over the declining importance of French. Official Languages Commission Fraser is not concerned:

Other languages and cultures have always been popular in Canada, and in some communities those third languages are in the majority, he continued.

But no single “other” language is giving French or English a run for predominance across the country or even in a single region. And none of those languages has the staying power of French or English.

“Historically, the pattern in Canada has been that immigrant community languages do not survive to the third generation as a language spoken at home,” Fraser said.

While his point is valid (Ukrainian Canadians being the prime example), not quite so sure that this will apply to the same extent in the future, given that cheap travel, free communications, and myriad language specialty media make integration and identity more complex and varied.

Is multiculturalism stifling bilingualism? | Globalnews.ca.

Mental Health Break: Spin and Branding

For those of you tired of corporate spin and branding, a wonderful ironic and sarcastic take at the clichés used from Dissolve Video:

Opinion: To which Charter do we owe our allegiance: Values or Rights?

A reminder of the complex and varied identities some of us have, given mixed heritage and families, by Zara Rubin:

So while many societies around the world are perplexed or even torn apart by diversity, in Canada we celebrate and derive strength from it. This is one of the defining features of Canadian multiculturalism — and one of the many reasons I am proud to be Canadian.

I am Muslim and Jewish and when asked, “Well, which one are you?” it is Canada that has allowed me to answer, “Both.”

Vive le Canada!

Interfaith and inter-ethnic marriages, while still relatively small, continue to grow, meaning more of these interesting combinations. Some individuals and communities may feel threatened by this, as it means a weakening of their community identity and faith.

In one of my briefings on Canadian multiculturalism, I had noted the increase in intermarriage rates as a success of multiculturalism. This prompted a response from a Jewish community representative who reminded me of the sensitivity within the community regarding intermarriage, given the longer-term demographic impact. Understandable, and a reminder of competing trends, one towards a more mixed and varied series of identities, the other reinforcement of a core ethnic or religious identity.

Opinion: To which Charter do we owe our allegiance: Values or Rights?.