La langue ne peut pas être le critère principal dans la répartition des demandeurs d’asile, dit Québec

2024/02/17 Leave a comment

A noter. Quick rebuke to proposal from the French Language Commissioner:

Le critère de la langue ne peut pas être le facteur principal dans la répartition des demandeurs d’asile à travers le Canada, selon le gouvernement caquiste. Si ce dernier souhaite toujours voir davantage de ces immigrants se diriger vers d’autres provinces, cela doit d’abord se faire « sur une base volontaire », a indiqué jeudi la ministre de l’Immigration, Christine Fréchette.

L’élue du gouvernement de François Legault réagissait ainsi au plus récent rapport du commissaire à la langue française, Benoît Dubreuil, qui recommandait mercredi que la maîtrise de la langue française devienne un critère dans la répartition des demandeurs d’asile. Dans ce scénario, les demandeurs qui ne parlent pas français seraient redirigés vers le reste du Canada.

« Il y a exactement une année, le fédéral avait mis en place un système pour faire en sorte de donner de l’oxygène au Québec, pour faire en sorte de répartir l’ensemble des demandeurs d’asile davantage en Ontario et dans les provinces atlantiques », a rappelé jeudi la ministre Fréchette en mêlée de presse avec son collègue à la Langue française, Jean-François Roberge. « Nous, on demande de reprendre cette approche-là et de faire en sorte que, sur une base volontaire, les demandeurs d’asile soient [redirigés]. »

Interrogée sur le critère de la langue française, Mme Fréchette a répété qu’elle demandait « au fédéral d’agir sur une base volontaire pour la répartition des demandeurs d’asile ». « Les moyens qu’il utilisera pour le faire, c’est à sa discrétion », a-t-elle ajouté.

À Ottawa, le ministre fédéral de l’Immigration, Marc Miller, n’a pas attendu pour rejeter les propositions du commissaire à la langue française. En réponse à une question du député de Lac-Saint-Jean, le bloquiste Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, il a soutenu que « déporter des gens qui ne parlent pas le français au [reste du] Canada » serait « un geste illégal, immoral, qui manquerait d’humanité ».

La langue parlée « ne devrait pas être le critère principal », a-t-il poursuivi lorsqu’interrogé directement sur la recommandation du commissaire Dubreuil.

Ottawa doit « sortir de sa bulle »

Au début de l’année, le premier ministre François Legault avait envoyé une lettre à son homologue fédéral, Justin Trudeau, pour exiger que les demandeurs d’asile, qui arrivent en grande partie par l’aéroport Montréal-Trudeau, soient mieux répartis à travers le Canada. « On a une situation qui est critique au Québec », a dit jeudi Mme Fréchette, tout en demandant à Ottawa de « sortir de sa bulle ».

Or, depuis, rien. Bien que le ministre Miller ait assuré jeudi travailler pour « répartir le fardeau que porte le Québec ».

Au Salon bleu, jeudi, le chef du Parti québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, a accusé le gouvernement caquiste d’être « responsable du pire déclin linguistique de notre histoire ». Son collègue député Pascal Bérubé a accusé la ministre Fréchette de ne pas vouloir « froisser son homologue fédéral ». Comme le commissaire à la langue française, la formation souverainiste appuie l’idée d’une répartition basée sur la langue. « C’est une bonne proposition », a dit M. Bérubé, porte-parole péquiste en matière d’immigration.

En réponse à M. St-Pierre Plamondon, le ministre Roberge a rappelé que son gouvernement travaillait à un « réveil national » sur la langue française. « Ça prend du culot pour […] demander un réveil national quand on dort à ce point-là sur cet enjeu-là », a répliqué le chef péquiste, avant d’être rappelé à l’ordre par la présidente de l’Assemblée nationale pour l’utilisation du mot non parlementaire « culot ».

S’il appuie le commissaire à la langue française sur la nécessité d’une meilleure répartition des demandeurs d’asile, Québec solidaire souhaite, comme la Coalition avenir Québec, que ces transferts se fassent de manière « volontaire ». « On ne mettra pas du monde qui ne veut pas aller ailleurs dans un autobus. De toute façon, on ne peut pas faire ça », a soutenu le porte-parole solidaire en matière d’immigration, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard.

« Du moment où ça va être volontaire, ça ne sera pas inhumain. Du moment où les gens vont être consentants », a-t-il ajouté.

Le Parti libéral du Québec, lui, ne voit pas les choses du même oeil que le commissaire Dubreuil. « Si les immigrants veulent rester de façon permanente, on doit mettre en place des programmes qui leur permettront d’apprendre le français. On ne peut pas se mettre à la porte et dire : “Vous ne parlez pas français, on vous refuse l’accès” », a soutenu le chef intérimaire du parti, Marc Tanguay.

Source: La langue ne peut pas être le critère principal dans la répartition des demandeurs d’asile, dit Québec

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UK: Shadow minister says Labour will investigate allegations as antisemitism row deepens

2024/02/17 Leave a comment

Of note:

The shadow defence secretary has said Labour will “follow the hard evidence” to ensure anyone who does not meet the standards of the party will be investigated.

His remarks come as Keir Starmer’s party was plunged into a damaging row about the handling of antisemitism allegations, with parliamentary candidate Graham Jones suspended on Tuesday, only a day after Labour was forced to suspend and withdraw its backing for Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali.

Mr Starmer was forced to act after audio, obtained by website Guido Fawkes, appeared to capture Mr Jones using the words “f****** Israel” at the same meeting Mr Ali attended, while also allegedly suggesting that British people who volunteer to fight with the Israel Defence Forces should be “locked up”.

John Healey today urged anyone else at the meeting who witnessed antisemitism or unacceptable comments to report it to the party.

Speaking to Sky News, the shadow minister said: “Anyone at that meeting, if there is evidence that they have, that people acted or spoke in a way that doesn’t meet the standards, or is incompatible with the values of our Labour Party, they need to report it, provide it and the Labour Party will take it seriously and investigate it.

He added: “It’s what we do with every case.”

Pushed on whether Mr Ali was properly vetted, Mr Healey said the Rochdale candidate was “widely respected” and “widely supported across communities, including the Jewish community in the North West”.

He also said that there are “strong checks” and “due diligence” in the process. “But you can’t see everything everywhere. What’s important is that if new information comes to light, as in this case, we will act to investigate, we will act to block those who are not fit to serve as MPs,” he added.

It is too late now to replace Mr Ali as the Labour candidate so he will still appear on the ballot paper as the party’s choice.

On Tuesday the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer addressed the controversy for the first time since the allegations broke.

“Information came to light over the weekend in relation to the candidate [and] there was a fulsome apology. Further information came to light yesterday calling for decisive action, so I took decisive action,” he said.

The Labour leader added: “It is a huge thing to withdraw support for a Labour candidate during the course of a byelection. It’s a tough decision, a necessary decision, but when I say the Labour party has changed under my leadership I mean it.”

Labour has been criticised for not taking tougher action sooner, with some suggesting Mr Ali was given favourable treatment because he was an ally of the leadership.

Source: Shadow minister says Labour will investigate allegations as antisemitism row deepens

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Yakabuski: Australia’s centre-left Labor government points the way for Canada’s Liberals on immigration

2024/02/16 Leave a comment

Lots more to Australian changes but this is one of the major ones, with lessons for the current Canadian government:

…In December, the current Labor government headed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed on the brakes. It unveiled a plan to “reform Australia’s broken migration system” and “bring migration back to sustainable levels.” Net migration will be reduced to 375,000 this year and to 250,000 in 2024-25.

“People my age in my city and anyone younger right now think that owning their own home is a pipe dream. They can’t get into a rental,” said Clare O’Neil, Australia’s 43-year-old Home Affairs Minister and a Melbourne MP. “[W]e’ve got a housing crisis in our country that is not being helped by what is a very large migration intake.”

While Australia’s centre-left federal government has finally moved – however reluctantly – to fix a “broken” immigration system, Canada’s is still in denial. Liberal Immigration Minister Marc Miller last month announced a 35-per-cent reduction in student visas this year. But that timid move was typical of a government that still refuses to admit its immigration-policy mistakes.

Mr. Miller has not taken any action to reduce the number of temporary foreign worker visas Ottawa hands out. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has insisted his government has no intention of scrapping its plan to increase the number of new permanent residents Canada accepts to 500,000 in 2025, from 485,000 this year, 341,000 in 2019 and 272,000 in 2015.

In short, the Liberals still seem wedded to Big Canada, despite its increasingly obvious pitfalls.

Source: Australia’s centre-left Labor government points the way for Canada’s Liberals on immigration

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Jesse Kline: Amira Elghawaby defends antisemitic protest in front of Toronto hospital

2024/02/16 Leave a comment

Not a great look:

…Not that the protesters themselves would ever admit this, as doing so would expose them to hate crime charges. The group Toronto4Palestine said that Mount Sinai “just happens to be along our regular rally route.” How were they supposed to know it’s the one hospital in that area with strong ties to the Jewish community?

It’s not hard to see through their thinly veiled excuses, but that hasn’t stopped their fellow travellers from putting on blinders and coming to their defence — including Elghawaby, Canada’s “special representative on combating Islamophobia.” Taking to the social media platform formally known as Twitter on Tuesday, Elghawaby noted that blocking the entrance to a public hospital was “troubling,” but also criticized “the rush to label protesters as antisemitic and/or terrorist sympathizers.”

Never mind that they deliberately targeted an institution with Jewish roots. Never mind that signs could clearly be seen portraying terrorists as freedom fighters. And never mind that they were loudly chanting, “Long live the intefadeh,” a reference to the two Palestinian uprisings, in which hundreds of Israeli civilians were killed in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks, many of which were committed by Hamas, the perpetrator of the Oct. 7 massacre.

You’d think that someone whose job is to combat hatred would be the first to denounce a hate-filled rally such as this, even if it was antisemitism being espoused, rather than Islamophobia. But according to Elghawaby, such displays should only be condemned “if police determine any action was motivated by hate.” (Which is a little hard to do since we can’t read minds, and highlights the folly of creating a separate class of crimes that are dependant on the thought processes of the perpetrators.)

source: Jesse Kline: Amira Elghawaby defends antisemitic protest in front of Toronto hospital

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Mahboubi: The other immigration problem: Too much talent is leaving Canada

2024/02/16 Leave a comment

More commentary on emigration and the apparent churn we have between arrivals and departures:

The Statistics Canada paper also draws attention to the challenges immigrants encounter, extending beyond economic integration to encompass factors such as family dynamics and considerations, cultural adaptation, and the political, economic, or cultural conditions of their country of origin. Furthermore, the study highlights the phenomenon of transnationalism, where immigrants maintain ties in multiple countries. Some immigrants may plan to emigrate from Canada as part of a strategic migration approach. Not all these circumstances are easy for Canadian policy makers to address.

Other circumstances, however, are well within Canadian policy makers’ scope. Canadian living standards are stagnating. Weak capital investment is hurting productivity and incomes. Canadian businesses tend to stay small. Canadian governments rely relatively heavily on personal income taxes, with high rates that apply at relatively low income levels – not an approach that signals to talented people that Canada is the place for them. Tax reform and other changes that mitigated these problems would make Canada more attractive to everyone – immigrants and Canadian-born alike.

Paying attention to which immigrants are likeliest to leave, and why, can help Canada improve its ability to attract and retain talent. We may be able to refine our selection criteria to raise the proportion of talented, entrepreneurial immigrants who stay in Canada. We can make it easier for immigrants with specialized skills, in health care for example, to work in their professions. Moreover, addressing factors such as high taxes and regulations that stifle entrepreneurship can help Canada retain more immigrants and retain more Canadian-born talent – a win for everyone.

Parisa Mahboubi is a senior policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute, where William Robson serves as CEO.

Source: The other immigration problem: Too much talent is leaving Canada

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California’s Push for Ethnic Studies Runs Into the Israel-Hamas War

2024/02/16 Leave a comment

Not surprisingly, as would any history program:

California has grand ambitions for ethnic studies. By 2025, the state’s public high schools — about 1,600 of them — must teach the subject. By 2030, students won’t be able to graduate high school without it.

For policymakers, a goal is to give California students, 80 percent of whom are nonwhite, the opportunity to study a diverse array of cultures. Research has shown that ethnic studies classes can raise grades and attendance for teenagers at risk of dropping out.

But even in a liberal state like California, scholars, parents and educators have found themselves at odds over how to adapt the college-level academic discipline for high school students, especially because of its strong views on race and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While the name “ethnic studies” might bring to mind a broad exploration of how ethnicity and race shape the human experience, the discipline, as taught in universities, is narrower — and more ideological.

Ethnic studies focuses on four groups: Black Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Americans. It aims to critique various forms of oppression and spur students to take action, often drawing analogies across disparate expanses of time and geography. The Palestinian experience of displacement is central to that exercise, and has been compared by some scholars to the Native American experience.

In reworking ethnic studies for high school, California came up with a 700-page model curriculum that captures much of the discipline’s leftist, activist spirit. But it added the stories of other ethnic groups, including Jewish Americans, while eliminating discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It said lessons should include “multiple perspectives” on political issues.

The state’s model ethnic studies curriculum does not directly address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but does include an optional sample lesson that emphasizes Jewish roots on the land that is now Israel.Credit…California Department of Education
The state’s model ethnic studies curriculum does not directly address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but does include an optional sample lesson that emphasizes Jewish roots on the land that is now Israel.

Now some prominent ethnic studies scholars and educators say the state has bowed to political critics and censored their field. They are promoting a competing vision, which they call “liberated ethnic studies.” It is truer to how the subject is taught in colleges, but more politically fraught. It largely excludes the histories of ethnic groups, including Jews, who are typically understood as white within the discipline’s context. (Arab American studies is defined as fitting into Asian American studies.) And it offers lessons that are critical of Israel — and, some argue, antisemitic.

A number of California school districts are working with curriculum consultants who embrace liberated ethnic studies, while other districts are drawing upon these materials in creating their own classes.

The dueling approaches have prompted several lawsuits and sparked a heated debate: How should millions of California teenagers engage with these explicitly activist concepts in the classroom?

Resolutions to this question may shape education across the country. States including Oregon, Vermont and Minnesota plan to introduce K-12 ethnic studies in the coming years.

Source: California’s Push for Ethnic Studies Runs Into the Israel-Hamas War

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Non-binding Commons vote calls for feds to revise immigration quota

2024/02/16 Leave a comment

Interesting that the NDP didn’t vote with the Liberals:

A call from the Bloc Quebecois to revise current immigration quotas within 100 days was approved in a non-binding vote in the House of Commons, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.

MPs voted 173 -150 in favour of the Bloc’s motion, with only the Liberals standing against the idea.

“Canadians basically strongly disagree with the immigration policies of what is left of this government,” said Bloc Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet.

The motion asked that cabinet meet with premiers “to consult them on their respective integration capacities” and “table in the House within 100 days a plan for revising federal immigration targets in 2024 based on the integration capacity.”

Canada currently has an annual quota of 500,000 immigrants.

“This used to be a Quebec thing,” said Blanchet. “People used to say Quebeckers were against immigration because they were racists. Now people in Toronto are saying they are having problems managing the volume of immigrants.”

The quota is in addition to 227,000 annual permits for temporary foreign workers and 983,000 foreign students.

“We are so focused on numbers and so keen to open everything up that people who came here as asylum seekers are sleeping in the streets of Montreal without housing,” said Blanchet. “This is the most obvious example of the government’s heartless failure.”

Immigration Minister Marc Miller countered there’s no choice but to maintain current quotas.

“The main reason is we need newcomers as much as they need us,” he said. “Immigration is crucial to expand our labour force, to ensure our economy prospers and to guarantee the quality of the social services Canadians depend on. Faced with an aging population, we need qualified and talented newcomers to ensure our future economic prosperity.”

Source: Non-binding Commons vote calls for feds to revise immigration quota

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John Ivison: Warnings about too many international students were clear. The Liberals ignored them

2024/02/15 Leave a comment

Says it all:

…Miller has since reduced the number of international student visas by 35 per cent to around 364,000 and plans to limit the number of hours they can legally work to around 20. But that is the response of a government taking action after finding the stable empty and the horse long gone.

If Miller really wants to fix the problem, he should block students from working at all off campus and should make clear to everyone that there is only one route to permanent residency: that is, through the comprehensive ranking system that awards points based on skills, education, language ability and work experience. That way Canada will get the best and brightest through the front door.

To be clear, foreign workers and students are not to blame for all the housing market’s woes. Land costs and development charges have risen tenfold in the past two decades. Mortgage interest costs were up 30 per cent last year. All of these things operate independently of what is going on with the arrival of non-residents.

But as has been noted by innumerable experts, you can’t add a million-and-a-half people and only build 300,000 new homes.

It’s clear that the minister responsible was warned there would be unintended consequences to messing with the student program’s integrity — and there were.

There is a reason why Pierre Poilievre owns the housing issue, even after the Liberals have purloined some of his ideas.

That is because the Liberals are viewed as being culpable for creating the mess we’re in. Judging by Fraser’s testimony, they deserve the discredit.

source: John Ivison: Warnings about too many international students were clear. The Liberals ignored them

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Wells: The end of the high-value economy [immigration aspects]

2024/02/15 Leave a comment

The usual insightful and acerbic Paul Wells:

….We are going to go on a bit of a stroll today, so before I go further I should emphasize that I see nothing wrong with students from anywhere taking jobs as baristas or dog walkers. I think jobs at pubs or with Uber are a valuable part of the international student experience, and I congratulate Edvoy for their success in connecting young people with Canada’s community colleges and its gig-worker economy. 

But surely all this is useful context for the news that Sean Fraser was told in 2022, while he was immigration minister, that removing the 20-hour weekly cap on work international students could perform would “detract from the primary study goal of international students… circumvent the temporary foreign worker programs and give rise to further program integrity concerns with the international student program.” With that information in hand, Fraser took the 20-hour cap off anyway.

That’s because Fraser attached more value to the first thing the memo said, which was that increasing hours worked would help alleviate labour shortages. In other words, immediate post-COVID Canada was a place where the big problem was the limited number of people available to work. Bringing in more international students was a quick way to address that, and letting them work nearly full-time would help too. 

Ontario became Ground Zero for the rapid increase in enrolment for college students. That’s because Ontario premier Doug Ford was transfixed with what he called a “historic labour shortage” and eager to attract more people to the province — from other provinces, from outside Canada, seriously, wherever. I was told at the time that when Ford and Justin Trudeau met soon after the 2022 elections in Ontario and Quebec returned the incumbents, the PM bonded with Ford by complaining about Quebec’s François Legault behind Legault’s back, because Legault was still trying to limit immigration while Ford wanted the roof blown off. 

A certain creative laxity in international-student visa distribution permitted the overlap between Ford’s interests, Trudeau’s and those of Ontario’s community colleges: Ford could address his labour shortage, at least at the lower end of the skills ladder (I assume international students are often highly skilled and eager to increase their human capital, but in the meantime they’re dog walkers). Trudeau could goose the economy during a shaky period when a lot of people were worried about the prospects of recession. And Ontario’s colleges could enjoy a revenue bonanza, at a time when most other sources of funding for Ontario higher education are capped. Alex Usher’s been covering that part all along….

Source: The end of the high-value economy

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The Ontario college with the most international students comes out swinging against Canada’s reforms

2024/02/15 Leave a comment

Not unexpected. But one third in business programs suggest and three percent in health and life sciences suggest that it may be over stating its case:

The Ontario college that boasts the largest number of international students in the country is unapologetically touting its growth plan in an effort to address what it calls Canada’s “baby deficit.”

Kitchener-based Conestoga College, which has seen new approved study permits up 137 per cent over the last three years, said the prosperity of the local communities is threatened by the pressure on the labour supply — a result of a declining birthrate and an aging workforce — as well as the recent changes to Canada’s international education program.

“The college is responding to these shortages both emphatically and strategically,” Conestoga said in a report released Tuesday that explains its recent growth and the need to meet the region’s demand for a skilled labour force.

“The college has expanded its enrolment and attracted the level of international students necessary to compensate for the ‘baby deficit’ that will be the hallmark of the next several decades.”

The report, titled “The Conestoga Effect,” came in the wake of a two-year cap imposed by Immigration Minister Marc Miller recently to restrict the number of new study permits issued in order to rein in Canada’s fast-growing international student program, which he said has been used as a back entry into the country for jobs and permanent residence. 

According to data from the Immigration Department, Conestoga, a public college with 11 campuses in eight cities, has seen the fastest growth in new study permits received — 12,822 in 2021; 20,905 in 2022; and 30,395 in 2023 — and one of the highest volumes of study permits extended over the three-year period — 2,837, 4,629 and 6,760 respectively.

Those numbers have raised eyebrows and drawn criticisms of the college for running the operations like what Miller has described as “puppy mills,” which Conestoga president John Tibbits vehemently denied on Tuesday.

“I am happy with what we’ve done. And we would do the same thing again,” he told an audience at the unveiling of the report, which was the fourth in a series over two decades that started in 2003, to capture the impact of the institution on the local community and economy.

Source: The Ontario college with the most international students comes out swinging against Canada’s reforms

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