LILLEY: Trudeau changed foreign workers program at your expense

2024/08/16 Leave a comment

Valid critique with some humour:

The Trudeau Liberals are channeling Captain Louis Renault as they react in shock to problems with Canada’s temporary foreign worker program. Movie fans will know Captain Renault as the corrupt police chief in Casablanca.

After Captain Renault barges into Rick’s Cafe — more of a nightclub and casino — Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, walks up and asks on what grounds his establishment is being shut down.

“I’m shocked, shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here,” Captain Renault says.

“Your winnings sir,” says a card dealer handing money to Renault, who thanks him and continues his bust.

The Liberals are Captain Renault, guilty of gambling in the illegal casino and now threatening to throw everyone out. It was the Trudeau Liberals who changed the rules to ramp up Canada’s temporary foreign workers program and now they are promising to punish anyone abusing it, using the rules they changed.

“Abuse and misuse of the TFW program must end,” Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault said last week.

“Bad actors are taking advantage of people and compromising the program for legitimate businesses. We are putting more reforms in place to stop misuse and fraud from entering the TFW program.”

The number of people coming in under the TFW program has been ramping up for years, especially under the Trudeau Liberals. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who was employment minister in 2015, called this out during a recent news conference.

“Trudeau has destroyed our entire immigration system, and he has expanded our temporary foreign worker program by well over 200% at a time when we’re losing jobs,” Poilievre said during an event at Stelco Steel in Hamilton last Friday.

Poilievre noted that when he was responsible for that program there were only 60,000 people admitted under the TFW program but now that number is near 200,000.

“On top of that, you have international students who are effectively temporary foreign workers who came under the wrong stream.”

There was a time, let’s call it 2014, when Justin Trudeau was leader of the third party in Parliament, that he railed against this program. Trudeau said the Harper government was allowing the program to drive down wages of Canadians.

“The government has allowed the temporary foreign worker program to become a force that drives down wages across the country and takes advantage of vulnerable people from abroad,” Trudeau said in April 2014.

Even as recently as this past April, Trudeau was saying that out of control immigration was hurting wages.

“Increasingly, more and more businesses are relying on temporary foreign workers in a way that is driving down wages in some sectors,” Trudeau said five months ago.

If only he knew someone who could do something about this!

He truly is Captain Renault, shocked that there is gambling going on and pocketing his winnings at the same time.

It was Trudeau who changed the rules in April of 2022 to allow a massive deregulation of the program. Under the changes announced then, seasonal industries could hire under the TFW for the full year while the cap on an employer having only 10% of their workforce come from the TFW program was lifted to 20% in most industries but higher in others.

The feds raised the cap to 30% for manufacturing, food and accommodations, hospitals and nursing homes. They also got rid of a stipulation that if unemployment was above 6% then TFW approval would not be granted.

“This was a deliberate move by the federal government to suppress wage growth for low-income Canadians, and increase the number of temporary workers, who have much weaker labour rights than permanent residents,” Mike Moffat posted on X last week.

Moffat is an academic and self-styled progressive who has advised the Trudeau government and worked for the Canada 2020 think tank that is closely tied to the PM. That’s what makes Moffat’s criticism sting so much for the Liberals.

That and the fact that he pointed out these changes were announced less than two weeks after the coalition deal with the NDP was announced.

The Trudeau Liberals say they are there for the little guy, the middle class and those working hard to join it. If actions speak louder than words then that is clearly not true, by the PM’s own admission, his policies are driving down wages for low-income Canadians.

Now he’s claiming he’s shocked, don’t believe him.

Source: LILLEY: Trudeau changed foreign workers program at your expense

Op-ed from Moffatt:

Moffatt: Justin Trudeau’s government radically transformed Canada’s temporary foreign worker program. Young people and low wage workers are paying the price

If you know a young person who struggled to find a summer job they are not alone. This has been the worst summer on record for youth employment outside of the pandemic. Many factors — from a weak economy to a population boom of young people — are at play with one of the largest being the federal government’s 2022 decision to deregulate the low-wage stream of the temporary foreign worker program.

On April 4, 2022, a mere 13 days after the Liberals and NDP signed their Supply and Confidence Agreement, the federal government announced arguably the largest deregulation of the Temporary Foreign Worker program in Canadian history. The program’s low-wage stream, which allows employers not in the agricultural industry (they have a separate stream) to bring in workers and pay them wages under the provincial median (currently $28.39 in Ontario), was radically transformed. The government removed the rule that employers could only bring in workers in some low-wage occupations if the local unemployment rate was less than six per cent allowing firms in areas of high unemployment to access the program. Companies had been limited to having only 10 per cent of their workforce be low-wage temporary foreign workers; this was raised to 20 per cent. In seven sectors, including accommodation and food services, this was raised to 30 per cent.

Mike Moffatt is the Senior Director of the Smart Prosperity Institute and co-host of the podcast The Missing Middle.

Source: Justin Trudeau’s government radically transformed Canada’s temporary foreign worker program. Young people and low wage workers are paying the price

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Colby Cosh: Is a Canadian a Canadian if he first tortured prisoners for ISIS?

2024/08/16 Leave a comment

Overly simplistic characterization. One of the problems with the previous government’s legislation on post-citizenship revocation was that it allowed for “offloading” of responsibilities to other countries. The best example to date has been the UK government’s revocation of Jack Letts (“Jihadi Jack”), who was born and raised in the UK with minimal to no time in Canada.

However, as his mother is Canadian, his parents are understandably pressing Canada to take on his case. But correctly speaking, his radicalization occurred in the UK and the UK should not have “offloaded” responsibility to Canada. The Canadian government, to its credit, has not responded substantively to the various persons lobbying on his behalf.

Revocation for misrepresentation at the application stage is fully appropriate, including judicial review rather than leaving it only to the Minister. But post-citizenship, countries should assume their responsibilities which the UK has shamefully not done:

…The new government preserved the state’s pre-2015 right to cancel citizenship for “false representation or fraud” in an application, but it added a proviso for appeal by right to the Federal Court. This means that today’s immigration minister initiates the process for revocation, if he can find evidence of falsehood, but that he is no longer the ultimate decision-maker.

Miller knows all this, whether or not he is hoping you remember it. Nobody’s real concern about the latest accused Toronto terrorists is that the elder of them may have filled out a citizenship application form incorrectly, which is itself a purely speculative possibility. The minister is using the shreds of revocation powers left by (and to) his own government to give the general impression that a terrorist might lose citizenship only for terrorism. But this is a possibility that our prime minister explicitly rejected, and whose rejection he campaigned successfully on. A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian, even if he fought for ISIS not long before becoming a Canadian. Right?

Source: Colby Cosh: Is a Canadian a Canadian if he first tortured prisoners for ISIS?

Filed under Citizenship, Revocation Tagged with

Effect of the international student cap by country

2024/08/15 Leave a comment

Further to my earlier analysis of the overall effect on post-secondary study permits below, I have also done an analysis of the effect by country on study permit applications and study permit issued.

For the country analysis, the public tables do not have a breakdown by study level, so the tables below include all levels (post-secondary study permits form 80 percent).

Starting with applications (finalized applications). Despite an overall decline quarter to quarter, there is considerable variation among source countries with a number of countries showing an increase 2024 to 2023 quarter. This may reflect some processing time lags:

In contrast, study permits issued has an overall consistent pattern of decrease in study permits among all countries save Saudi Arabia. The most striking decline is India, almost 100 percent, but Nigeria declined by over 50 percent, with Philippines and Turkey close behind. The greater reduction of Indian students likely reflects some of the negative stories by or about Indian students and their frustrations and struggles, all covered in Indian as well as Canadian media.

In short, the implementation of the cap has resulted in an overall decline in the number of applications and study permits issued, and thus is achieving the policy and program goal (web interest in getting a study permit has also declined).

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Yakabuski: The folly of Liberal immigration policy is now showing up in the job market

2024/08/15 Leave a comment

Time lag and lack of policy foresight and political pandering:

…There should always be room for exceptions on humanitarian grounds. But blanket amnesty for undocumented immigrants would send a clear message to the vast majority of the country’s 2.8 million temporary residents, who are legally obligated to leave when their student visas or temporary work permits expire, or if their asylum claims or applications for permanent residency are rejected. It would encourage temporary residents to go underground in the belief that Ottawa would eventually grant them amnesty, too.

That is the last message the Trudeau government should be sending at a time when the unintended consequences of its move as the pandemic receded to massively boost immigration to torque economic growth have now been laid bare.

As Statistics Canada reported on Friday, the unemployment rate among youth aged between 15 and 24 surged to 14.2 per cent in July, up 3.6 percentage points from 2023 and the highest rate (outside of the pandemic) since 2012.

Among recent immigrants in that age group, the jobless rate stood at a non-seasonally adjusted 22.8 per cent in July, up 8.6 percentage points in one year. Among all recent immigrants – newcomers who have been in the country for less than five years – the unemployment rate hit 12.6 per cent last month….

Source: The folly of Liberal immigration policy is now showing up in the job market

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Ibbitson: With human rights chief debacle, the Liberals continue their string of blunders

2024/08/15 Leave a comment

Unfortunately accurate:

…On Monday, Mr. Dattani agreed to resign. The Trudeau government’s slipshod vetting process had once again turned what looked like an innovative choice for an important position into an embarrassment.

I say “once again” because hiring, discovering and then backtracking has become something of a pattern with this government’s appointments.

There was the unfortunate decision to ask the Community Media Advocacy Centre to conduct anti-racism seminars. Everything was going fine until reports surfaced that Laith Marouf, a senior consultant at the centre, had posted vile antisemitic comments on Twitter. The government cancelled the contract.

Then there was the famous case of Julie Payette, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s choice for governor-general in 2017. On paper, she looked perfect: an engineer, scientist and former astronaut. But a proper background check would have revealed past accusations of workplace harassment. After similar complaints surfaced at Rideau Hall and following an investigation ordered by the government, Ms. Payette resigned.

The Liberals’ missteps extend beyond poor hiring decisions…

Source: With human rights chief debacle, the Liberals continue their string of blunders

Filed under Government Tagged with , ,

Canada’s foreign worker program ‘breeding ground’ for modern slavery: report

2024/08/15 Leave a comment

Not that surprising that little change from the interim report. Still find the language overly dramatic and over stated in describing the abuse:

A recently released international report says Canada’s temporary foreign worker program is a “breeding ground” for contemporary slavery.

The final report by a United Nations special rapporteur who visited Canada last year says a power imbalance prevents workers from exercising their rights.

A worker’s status is dependent on a closed work permit that is specific to their employer. If an individual is fired, they may be deported from Canada.

Workers are subject to a wide range of abuses and aren’t always aware of their rights, the report says.

It notes the government puts much of the responsibility for informing workers about their rights on the employer, “despite the obvious conflict of interest.”

Special rapporteur Tomoya Obokata cites reports of issues including wage theft, long working hours with limited breaks and insufficient personal protective equipment.

The report also notes allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation, along with physical, emotional and verbal abuse.

Obokata also found that workers have difficulty accessing health care.

In some cases, employers prevented people from seeking treatment, the report says, with some workers denied the necessary time off, encouraged to “take painkillers or home remedies instead” or even fired.

The report notes that rules implemented in 2022 require employers to make a reasonable effort to provide workers with access to health care if they are ill or injured.

It also points out that many employers end up providing housing for their workers. That can result in overcrowding, such as 20 to 30 people sharing a single washroom, it says.

The report calls for Canada to “end labour migration arrangements that foster exploitation by creating dependency situations that tie workers to their employers” and in which employers control the worker’s housing, health care and status.

The number of permits under the program increased 88 per cent from 2019 to 2023, though Ottawa recently indicated it plans to reduce the number of such workers in Canada.

Mathis Denis, a spokesperson for Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault, said the government has increased fines for employer non-compliance under the program. He said the government levied $2.1 million in fines for violating program rules last fiscal year, up from $1.54 million issued the previous year.

He said the minister is considering increasing fees to pay for “additional integrity and processing activities,” and is looking to put in place new regulations covering employer eligibility.

Source: Canada’s foreign worker program ‘breeding ground’ for modern slavery: report

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

U.S. speeding up asylum claim processing along the Canadian border

2024/08/15 Leave a comment

Of note, an area that Canada has to improve upon:

The U.S. government is moving to speed up asylum claim processing at its northern border in an attempt to deter migrants from illegally crossing over from Canada.

Washington is making two changes that fall under the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), which calls for asylum seekers to apply for refugee status in the first of two countries they enter.

First, migrants looking to prove that they’re exempt from the STCA will have to provide their documents to U.S. border officials at the time of their screening. Migrants previously were allowed to postpone screenings to gather necessary documentation.

Second, migrants will only have four hours — down from 24 hours — to consult a lawyer prior to their screening.

CBS News first reported on the changes. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed the changes to CBC News.

“DHS carefully reviewed its implementation of the Safe Third Country Agreement with Canada and concluded that it could streamline that process at the border without impacting noncitizens’ ability to have access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum or equivalent temporary protection,” the department said in a media statement.

The U.S. has seen a sharp increase in illegal crossings into the country from Canada in the past few years.

Border agents have taken 12,612 migrants who crossed the U.S.-Canada border illegally into custody in the first six months of 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That’s up from 12,218 in all of 2023 and is more than the number that were taken into custody in 2021 and 2022 combined.

Earlier this year, Ottawa reimposed some visa requirements on Mexican nationals visiting Canada, in part to answer a request from Washington to help stem illegal border crossings into the U.S. The number of Mexican migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. from Canada has since dropped.

In 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden announced that they were making changes to the STCA by expanding its application to the entire Canada-United States border, rather than just official points of entry.

Source: U.S. speeding up asylum claim processing along the Canadian border

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Immigrants Are Becoming U.S. Citizens at Fastest Clips in Years

2024/08/14 Leave a comment

Not surprising, post Trump administration and prior to the 2024 elections. 5 month average processing time is impressive. While I don’t have the average number of months for Canadian citizenship, 71 percent of all applications in 2023 were processed in one year (below the target of 80 percent):

The federal government is processing citizenship requests at the fastest clip in a decade, moving rapidly through a backlog that built up during the Trump administration and the coronavirus pandemic.

At ceremonies in courthouses, convention centers and sports arenas across the country, thousands of immigrants are becoming new Americans every week — and becoming eligible to vote in time for the presidential election this fall.

It’s unclear how many of the new voters live in battleground states, but a number of the states where Kamala Harris or Donald Trump must win have large and growing numbers of voting-age naturalized citizens, including Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

In Savannah, Ga., people from 19 countries streamed into a federal courthouse recently to take the oath of allegiance.

“My case was done in less than six months,” said Gladis Brown, who is married to an American and emigrated from Honduras in 2018.

Generally, lawful permanent residents, known as green-card holders, are eligible to become naturalized citizens if they have had that status for at least five years, or have been married to a U.S. citizen for at least three years.

Green-card holders have many of the same rights as citizens. But voting in federal elections is a right accorded only to citizens. And that can be a powerful motivation to pursue citizenship, especially when big national elections are on the horizon.

“I’m so glad that the process moved quickly,” said Ms. Brown, who was one of the 31 immigrants being sworn in. “People like me want to vote in the election.”

After the ceremony, Ms. Brown celebrated with cake and punch from a local women’s volunteer group — and by completing a voter-registration form provided by a representative of the League of Women Voters.

Naturalization applications typically spike upward in the approach to an election.

“The surge in naturalization efficiency isn’t just about clearing backlogs; it’s potentially reshaping the electorate, merely months before a pivotal election,” said Xiao Wang, chief executive of Boundless, a company that uses government data to analyze immigration trends and that offers services to immigrants who seek professional help in navigating the application process.

“Every citizenship application could be a vote that decides Senate seats or even the presidency,” Mr. Wang said.

At under five months, application processing speed is now on a par with 2013 and 2014. About 3.3 million immigrants have become citizens during President Biden’s time in office, with less than two months to go before the close of the 2024 fiscal year.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services took 4.9 months, on average, to process naturalization applications in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, compared with 11.5 months in fiscal 2021.

After taking office in 2021, Mr. Biden issued an executive order that sought to dial back his predecessor’s hard-line immigration agenda and “restore faith” in the legal immigration system. Among other steps, the order called for action to “substantially reduce current naturalization processing times” with the goal of strengthening integration of new Americans.

Unlike many federal agencies, the citizenship agency is funded mainly by fees paid by applicants, rather than by congressional appropriations, giving the administration latitude to define its priorities and the allocation of resources.

The Biden administration began deploying new technology and additional staff in 2022 to reduce the pending caseload of citizenship applications, which had ballooned because of heightened scrutiny by the Trump administration and protracted pandemic-related delays in conducting the swearing-in ceremonies.

The Biden administration also shortened the naturalization application to 14 pages from 20. It raised the application fee in April to $710 from $640, but made it easier for low-income people to qualify for a discount.

While there has long been partisan disagreement over how to tackle illegal immigration and overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, naturalizing lawful residents had broad bipartisan support. As president, George W. Bush signed an executive order in 2002 expediting naturalization for noncitizens serving in the military. Since he left office, he has hosted oath ceremonies at his institute in Dallas.

But citizenship has become more politicized in recent years.

Intent on curbing legal immigration, the Trump administration conducted lengthier reviews of naturalization applications. The processing time roughly doubled to about 10 months during Mr. Trump’s tenure.

The bottleneck prevented some 300,000 prospective citizens from naturalizing in time to vote in the 2020 election, according to estimates by Boundless.

It is a crime for noncitizens, including legal permanent residents, to attempt to vote in federal elections. Some Republicans, including former President Trump and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have spread unfounded narratives about undocumented immigrants being encouraged to vote by Democrats….

Source: Immigrants Are Becoming U.S. Citizens at Fastest Clips in Years

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , ,

ICYMI: Trudeau’s plan to reduce temporary immigration risks economic harm: business groups

2024/08/14 Leave a comment

Could hardly expect her to welcome any restrictions, even if all the evidence points to the need:

Canada’s independent business advocate says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to reduce temporary immigration risks dire economic consequences, underscoring the pressures the government is facing as it tries to slow population growth.

Nancy Healey, who holds a government post knows as commissioner for employers, penned a letter to three of Trudeau’s cabinet ministers warning that a plan to cut temporary residents by 20% over three years is likely to make it harder for firms to grow.

“In the context of the current and future labor shortages that Canada will experience, it is crucial not to reduce the labor pool,” she said in the Aug. 1 letter, which was signed by business groups including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “Such a reduction would have catastrophic economic consequences for companies and limit their growth potential.”

A surge in temporary residents — including international students, foreign workers and asylum seekers — pushed Canada’s population growth rate to 3.2%, one of the world’s fastest. The influx of new arrivals exacerbated a housing shortage and helped sink Trudeau’s popularity.

The government is already implementing a cap on student visas, and businesses fear the government will next shrink the program that allows them to bring in temporary employees, said Healey.

Indeed, Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault told business groups on Tuesday he intends to limit their use of temp workers — a program that has drawn mounting criticism for allowing fraud and abuse.

The number of temporary foreign workers in Canada has continued to grow even as the unemployment rate rises — it reached 6.4% in June, 13.5% for the youngest workers. Temporary foreign workers have increasingly been recruited for low-wage, unskilled jobs, including in retail stores and restaurants.

Healey defended the program in the letter, calling it “much maligned despite the rigor that has characterized it for many years,” driven by “unsubstantiated anecdotes.” The system requires employers to advertise jobs to Canadians before seeking a foreign worker, to pay market wages and to take part in a compliance regime that protects against abuse, she said.

She urged the government to maintain the number of workers admitted under the program, speed up approval times and avoid increasing the C$1,000 ($727.5) fee for permit applications, already costly for small businesses.

Business groups have long raised alarm about Canada’s aging population and low birth rates, a phenomenon experienced by many advanced economies. Healey pointed to a Royal Bank of Canada report that said 46% of projected structural labor shortages are in occupations that don’t need a university or college education, but instead require “occupation-specific” or on-the-job training.

“We need better paths for newcomers to come and stay in Canada,” Healey said in the letter. “It is clear that immigration streams that attach a job offer to the application result in improved outcomes.”

While business groups have a right to lobby the government, what’s good for businesses isn’t necessarily good for the economy, said Mikal Skuterud, a labor economist at the University of Waterloo.

Labor shortages are challenging for firms, but they can spur competitive wages and investments in equipment and technology — which is particularly important as Canada grapples with poor productivity, he said.

“I’m not saying it’s not difficult for businesses sometimes — for sure it is,” he said. “But the idea that this is some kind of an economic crisis the government has to respond to is really economic nonsense.”

Source: Trudeau’s plan to reduce temporary immigration risks economic harm: business groups

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Deborah Lipstadt slams progressive definition of antisemitism

2024/08/14 Leave a comment

Of note:

Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy for monitoring antisemitism, defended a controversial definition of antisemitism Wednesday and slammed a progressive alternative as having been endorsed by “some renowned antisemites.”

In a conversation with reporters at the State Department, Lipstadt said that International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which describes anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, represented the best language for addressing antisemitism overseas because foreign governments are most familiar with it.

“You need a definition,” Lipstadt said.

How the federal government should define antisemitism in relation to Israel has been a contentious topic since the Trump administration, and even more so as President Joe Biden has sought to make combating antisemitism a cornerstone of his administration.

The release of the landmark national strategy to counter antisemitism last year was delayed for several weeks amid a frantic lobbying campaign between proponents of the IHRA definition, including most major American Jewish groups, and critics who say that it has a chilling effect on legitimate criticism of Israel.

The White House ultimately mentioned in the strategy both the IHRA definition and the Nexus Document, which is meant to complement the IHRA definition and soften some of its positions on Israel. But Lipstadt said on Wednesday that Nexus was not appropriate for international use.

“You say ‘Nexus’ to most Europeans, they have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lipstadt said. “It’s not applicable.”

Jonathan Jacoby, who founded the task force behind Nexus, said that he hoped the group could work with Lipstadt to raise its profile internationally. “Nexus has only been used in the U.S. context, but the principles apply whenever and wherever issues related to Israel and antisemitism intersect,” he said.

Endorsed by ‘renowned antisemites,’ Lipstadt claims

But Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian, reserved her harshest criticism for the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, which was released in 2021 as an alternative to IHRAand alluded to, but not mentioned, in the White House strategy.

“A group of academics signed it, including some renowned antisemites like Richard Falk,” Lipstadt said. “So I don’t know that I’d want to go with that definition of antisemitism.”

Falk, a retired Princeton professor and longtime critic of Israel, has been embroiled in several controversies involving allegations of antisemitism and conspiracy theories, including posting a cartoon on his blog that featured a dog wearing a yarmulke while urinating on Lady Justice. 

Falk, who is Jewish, has consistently denied that he is antisemitic.

The Jerusalem Declaration was drafted by a group of mostly Jewish academics and has been signed by more than 300 other scholars.

Source: Deborah Lipstadt slams progressive definition of antisemitism

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , , , ,

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