While I was away: Refugees

2026/06/08 Leave a comment

Refugee articles I found interesting:

Proposal to radically change how asylum seekers are settled in Canada heard by MPs

Getting some attention but not clear whether the government prepared to go there:

Canada should consider adopting the German model of distributing asylum seekers across the country based on tax revenues and local population, a parliamentary committee has heard.

The idea would be to more fairly share the burden of settling those seeking protection.

Barutciski: Fixing our asylum-seeker policy offers a chance to show a Canada that can work together

…While our southern neighbours exhibit the opposite dynamic, with polarized red and blue states using migration to deliberately provoke each other, Canada can distinguish itself through a functioning Parliament that shows how a federation is supposed to work. Not only would the noble idea of solidarity relieve pressure in a practical sense, it would also signal that Canada remains strong at a critical time in its history.

Thousands of failed refugee claimants may be eligible to keep federal health benefits, new report finds

Brings out the usual divide between refugee advocates and those concerned about possibly incentivizing claims:

Thousands of refugee claimants who have had their cases rejected and are facing deportation may remain eligible for publicly funded health benefits, including dental coverage and counselling, according to a new report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. 

The analysis of the Interim Federal Health Program, which provides health coverage for refugees and refugee claimants until they are eligible for provincial health plans and benefits, found that the annual cost of the program reached $822-million in 2024-25 and was fuelled in part by long waits to have cases heard.

The PBO report, published on Tuesday, found that nearly 74,000 “failed refugee claimants” may remain eligible for coverage. They may be able to obtain such benefits for years if they appeal their cases, including in Federal Court. 

Dental care represented a large share of spending in 2024-25, the report found, followed by prescription medication. Urgent dental spending increased to $257-million from $30-million over five years. The cost of counselling services rose to $38.7-million in 2024-25, while home health visits cost more than $12-million.

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While I was away: Immigration

2026/06/08 Leave a comment

Some immigration articles I found interesting:

Regg Cohn | The history of humanity is the story of human migration

Reminder of the complexities of human migration and family histories:

Nakba Day has come and gone, but the controversy lives on in New York City of all places.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted to social media a story about the Nakba, which is how Arabs describe the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation (under the UN) and the fallout for displaced Palestinians. His office produced a four-minute profile of Inea Bushnaq, a Palestinian American “Nakba survivor” living in New York.

Controversy erupted over the mayor platforming Bushnaq as the embodiment of the Palestinian diaspora, because it turns out her family roots were first Bosnian (of which Bushnaq is a transliteration). Invoking the vernacular of today, critics described her family as “European settler-colonizers” in the Holy Land….

Canada’s top-skilled workers are leaving for the U.S. in droves for lower taxes and higher pay: TD study

More evidence of Canada being a “farm team:

A new report from TD Economics warns that Canada is losing its highest-skilled workers, entrepreneurs, and STEM graduates to the United States through a slow, largely invisible syphoning—calling the phenomenon a “silent brain drain.” The crisis, it argues, is less about who Canada can attract than who it fails to keep.

Much of the outflow never registers in Statistics Canada’s emigration data because it occurs through U.S. employer-sponsored work visas—temporary and semi-permanent pathways that conventional brain drain metrics simply don’t capture. Of the partial data Statistics Canada was able to retrieve, the agency determined that, in 2023, 18,590 Canadian residents emigrated to the U.S. permanently, with 30 percent of those people not being born in Canada.

Despite net migration to the U.S. lowering in recent years, the trend of top talent—which helps drive GDP growth—leaving Canada has not.

“Canada is not hollowing out; it is spilling out at the top,” the TD report states. “Absent progress on this front, Canada will continue to be a feeder system for the U.S. innovation economy.”…

Immigration lawyers say automation is partly driving a massive Federal Court backlog

Wonder how many immigration lawyers themselves are using AI. Given the large numbers of permanent and temporary residents, even reduced, AI has to be part of any immigration program management, and as Kahneman and others have noted, automated systems generate more consistent results than humans and arguably, if well designed, better and fairer decisions:

The number of immigration cases being brought to Federal Court has more than quadrupled since 2020 — and some immigration lawyers are linking the surge in part to the federal government’s use of artificial intelligence and automation to clear visa application backlogs.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada insists that technology is not to blame and that multiple factors are driving the boom in legal challenges of the department’s decisions.

About 6,400 immigration cases were brought to Federal Court in 2020, a figure in line with the trend over the previous decade. The caseload spiked sharply in 2021, when 9,700 cases were sent to the court.

More than 28,000 cases were filed with the court last year and more than 6,600 were filed in the first quarter of 2026. The vast majority of these cases are not refugee matters….

Douglas Todd: The Century Initiative changes its headline-grabbing tune on hiking Canadian migration

As someone who has following CI over the years, as well as one of the early critics, I was pleased to participate in this study given that it reflects their having now adopted a more realistic and nuanced position:

…No longer, Meggs said, is the organization emphasizing its headline-grabbing “100-million-by-2100” target. Nor, she said, is it declaring that “Canada is shrinking in population and in the world,” or that “our workforce is shrinking.” It’s also dropped “economic growth is tied to population growth” and “population growth is tied to our quality of life.”

Meggs said the Century Initiative is shifting to more nuanced expressions about the pros of migration. They include that it is necessary to “strengthen our workforce and build talent pipelines” and, finally, that there is a place for “smart, responsible population growth.”

As Canadians become more educated about migration issues, it’s a welcome sign that this influential organization is realizing it needs to tone down its lopsided, simplistic rhetoric.

Éditorial | Un oui inclusif, et ça devient possible

Yes, as in the PQ of the 1970s:

,…Un projet de pays qui s’appuie sur d’aussi piètres bases n’a aucune chance de succès. Le Québec de 2026 n’a plus rien à voir avec la nation colonisée dont M. St-Pierre Plamondon évoque occasionnellement le souvenir. En table éditoriale avec Le Devoir, l’an dernier, il nous avait même confié à quel point il craignait la peur dans le prochain cycle politique. La peur que nous avons intériorisée comme nation et qui remonte à la pendaison des patriotes, disait-il. C’est comme si le miracle de la Révolution tranquille n’avait pas eu lieu. C’est comme si les chaînes de l’oppression n’avaient pas été brisées par la formidable machine à intégrer et à franciser que fut la Loi 101. C’est comme s’il fallait encore des porteurs d’eau, dans l’imaginaire péquiste, pour conjurer le destin et se dire « Oui ! » par un Grand soir.

Il y a encore mille et une raisons de militer pour la souveraineté, serait-ce seulement parce que langue, culture, institutions distinctes et occupation du territoire sur le long temps de l’histoire ont produit une nation unique, singulière, capable d’assumer son destin et d’accéder au statut de pays si une majorité de ses concitoyens le désirent ardemment. Cette nation forte reste aussi fragile en sa qualité de principale héritière du fait français en Amérique du Nord, minoritaire sur un continent de locuteurs anglophones. Elle ne se sentira jamais protégée par un gouvernemental fédéral centralisateur, verrouillé dans le multiculturalisme à la Trudeau père, qui renvoie la nation québécoise au rang du folklore.

Par contre, un Québec qui aspire à la souveraineté devrait additionner les voix au lieu de les soustraire. Il devrait tendre la main, investir avec conviction dans la francisation et la culture, se vouer corps et âme à l’interculturalisme dont il se prétend le champion. Au contraire, le discours ambiant, aussi bien sous l’ex-gouvernement de François Legault que dans l’imaginaire de Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, entretient un malheureux clivage.

Selon Statistique Canada, les Québécois issus de l’immigration représentent désormais près de 15 % de la population (1,21 million de personnes). Dans la région de Montréal, une personne sur quatre est issue de l’immigration. Le Québec tout entier est en profonde mutation sociodémographique, passant d’une société homogène à une société diversifiée. C’est un changement structurel irréversible qui pose des enjeux d’intégration, de cohésion et d’adaptation des institutions démocratiques. C’est aussi une formidable occasion d’élargir la passion et le sentiment d’appartenance pour le Québec, sa langue, sa culture, dans le respect des droits des minorités et des peuples autochtones.

« Nous avons remplacé la fierté par la fermeture », souligne le rapport du OUI Québec. Les formations politiques qui ne l’ont pas encore compris vivent sur du temps emprunté, et elles fragilisent le projet de pays qu’elles aspirent à bâtir avec noblesse.”

IRCC

IRCC gave up office space in January. Now, it can’t accommodate RTO-4

Sigh…

A few months before delaying its four-day return-to-office due to lack of space, the federal immigration department gave up 12 floors of real estate across two downtown Ottawa office buildings.

According to an August 2025 slideshow obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through the Access to Information Act, the department was required to return the floors to the government’s central property manager to meet its obligations under a federal plan to cut back on office space.

In support of the plan, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) chose to release 10.5 floors at 300 Slater Street and 1.5 floors at 180 Kent Street back to Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC).

IRCC confirmed it completed the full release by the end of January.

But a few months later, the department had to delay the start of the government-wide four-day return-to-office mandate for most public servants because it didn’t have enough space to fit them.

The documents provide a glimpse into the internal gymnastics happening behind the scenes as federal departments attempt to bring workers back into the office more often, after trying for years to cut back on space.

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Blogging break

2026/05/19 Leave a comment

Back in 3 weeks

Filed under Multiculturalism

U.S. applications for Canadian citizenship surge, causing delays

2026/05/18 Leave a comment

Surge is normal and to be expected following the opening up of citizenship by descent beyond the first generation. It remains to be seen in a year or so how much of this is an initial surge versus ongoing demand. Given the expansive nature of C-3, the PBO assessment of some 20,000 per year, stated by the Minister and officials, may understate interest. But too early to call:

Applicants for Canadian citizenship certificates now have to wait a year because of a surge of interest from Americans interested in taking advantage of new Canadian citizenship rules, according to the Canadian government’s processing-time estimator.

U.S. applications surged during the first few months of 2026, with millions south of the border estimated to be eligible for Canadian citizenship based on their ancestry, after Canada changed its citizenship law.

Demand from U.S. citizens added 14,000 applicants to the queue. That includes a large concentration of people who live in New England, where an estimated three million Americans are eligible due to Canadian ancestry arising from mass migration south from 1870 to 1930, as previously reported by National Post.

The wait will be shorter for applicants who filed in December 2025, before the American surge.

Under the change, if a citizenship applicant was born before December 15, 2025, and can trace his or her lineage back to a Canadian ancestor, they are automatically eligible to apply for proof of Canadian citizenship….

Source: U.S. applications for Canadian citizenship surge, causing delays

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Confusion around postgraduate work permit language resulting in rejections

2026/05/18 Leave a comment

Sigh…. Does IRCC not do any focus group or other user testing?:

…Will Tao, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, said he became aware of the confusion about the language test for the PGWP late last year. He said the layout of the website after the language test became a requirement made information about it hard to find.

“Folks who do it themselves have to answer this come-to-Canada survey that automates this checklist and tells you, ‘That’s what you need.’ There’s no message there, there’s no pop-up, there’s nothing in that process that they’re doing that flags, ‘Hey, the language test is there,” Tao said.

He said that, “depending on which term you Googled for the PGWP,” an applicant might find information about the test requirement on one web page, “in one small box that wasn’t even in special font or colours or really stood out.”

“And it was one of those expandable ones too, so you had to expand to get to it,” he added. “That’s where they had that information. So it was really hidden.”

He said changes were made to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada web pages late last year after some reporting on the issue….

source: Confusion around postgraduate work permit language resulting in rejections

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Meggs: Immigration : Les courbes sont à la baisse. Maintenant quoi?

2026/05/18 Leave a comment

Good commentary and related questions (full article has key charts):

…Ces quatre graphiques permettent deux constats : la tendance à la baisse de toutes les catégories et la situation pitoyable de notre système d’immigration dans toute sa complexité. On n’a toujours pas l’heure juste sur le nombre de personnes qui auraient été admissibles au PEQ, s’il n’avait pas été aboli. La guerre des chiffres est futile et ne peut donner lieu à une politique publique compréhensive.

Une planification efficace de l’immigration repose sur une évaluation plus large de la capacité à court et à long terme d’accueillir, d’intégrer et de soutenir avec succès les personnes qui arrivent pour s’établir en fonction des objectifs sociaux, économiques et démographiques clairs.

Pour rétablir la confiance du public, il faudra plus que les « solutions de dépannage » dictées par idéologie. Il faudra une planification d’immigration basée sur une approche transparente et fondée sur des données probantes.

Après plus de dix ans d’improvisation, nous nous trouvons devant un défi inimaginable pour remettre de l’ordre dans le système. Ce système kafkaïen coûte cher à tous les niveaux, pour les individus venus d’ailleurs à notre invitation; souvent pour leur pays d’origine; pour des employeurs embauchant dans le cadre du PTET; pour les contribuables qui paient pour un système administratif partagé entre deux ordres de gouvernement avec des chevauchements et dédoublements inefficaces. Il a ouvert la porte à la fraude, au trafic de la main-d’œuvre, à l’exploitation et à la précarité.

Avons-nous compris qu’on ne peut réduire le débat à un chiffre? Que proposeront des partis politiques pour réparer les torts créés et pour nous assurer qu’ils ne se reproduiront plus?

Source: Immigration : Les courbes sont à la baisse. Maintenant quoi?

… These four graphs allow two observations: the downward trend of all categories and the pitiful situation of our immigration system in all its complexity. We still don’t have the right time on the number of people who would have been eligible for the EQP, if it had not been abolished. The war of numbers is futile and cannot give rise to a comprehensive public policy.

Effective immigration planning is based on a broader assessment of the short- and long-term ability to successfully welcome, integrate and support people who arrive to settle according to clear social, economic and demographic goals.

To restore public confidence, it will take more than “troubleshooting solutions” dictated by ideology. Immigration planning based on a transparent, evidence-based approach will be needed.

After more than ten years of improvisation, we are faced with an unimaginable challenge to restore order to the system. This Kafkaesque system is expensive at all levels, for individuals who came from elsewhere at our invitation; often for their country of origin; for employers hiring under the PTET; for taxpayers who pay for an administrative system divided between two levels of government with ineffective overlaps and duplications. It opened the door to fraud, labor trafficking, exploitation and precariousness.

Did we understand that we can’t reduce the debate to a number? What will political parties propose to repair the wrongs created and to ensure that they will not happen again?

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Pilot program for transgender refugees allows them to change identity, name on arrival 

2026/05/18 Leave a comment

Of note:

The Immigration department is piloting a program allowing transgender refugees to change their gender and name as soon as they arrive in Canada without having to clear the usual administrative hurdles, to ensure they are not retraumatized. 

In a bid to align refugee policy with government policies supporting members of the LGBTQ community, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is allowing transgender refugees to bypass long waits in Canada to formally change identity. 

The first transgender asylum seeker arrived from South America under the program in December. They were permitted to land in Canada under their preferred identity, without having to go through the usual administrative stages to change their name and gender once settled here. 

The refugees came to Canada through the Government-Assisted Refugees, or GAR, program, under which refugees are referred to Canada for resettlement by organizations such as the UN Refugee Agency, and receive permanent resident status on arrival.

An internal “flash report” from IRCC in the Colombian capital of Bogota, obtained under Access to Information laws by immigration lawyer and policy analyst Richard Kurland, reported on the successful processing of the first refugee under the pilot scheme….

Source: Pilot program for transgender refugees allows them to change identity, name on arrival

Filed under Immigration, LGBTQ Tagged with ,

Inside Canada’s sluggish process for deporting senior Iranian officials

2026/05/18 2 Comments

Of note:

..A key challenge in such cases is that Canada’s immigration law doesn’t specify who qualifies as a senior public servant or military officer. Instead, adjudicators at the Immigration and Refugee Board have come to rely on the “top-half test,” according to which anyone found to have held a position in the upper 50 per cent of an organization’s hierarchy can be deemed senior. 

During his hearing, Mr. Omidi faced detailed questioning about his responsibilities as deputy director-general of the exploration office in Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, a position he held from 2013 to 2020 before moving to Canada. He was asked whether he had the power to grant or cancel mining licences (he said he did not) and whether he could hire or fire employees (he could only approve their vacation requests when his boss was away, he said). 

The hearing moved at a glacial pace, frequently delayed by the challenge of translating technical terms. At one point, it ground to a halt while the adjudicator established that mineral permissions, licences and certificates all referred to the same thing. Later, there was considerable confusion over the chemical element molybdenum. 

Through it all, Mr. Omidi painted himself as a technician with no real authority. “How could I have any power over the influence of the government with the knowledge of geology?” he said on the final day. “This is a mistake.”

The top-half test first appeared in operation manuals for immigration officials more than two decades ago. It has since been endorsed by the Federal Court, which in 2023 found that rank alone is enough to label someone a senior official, regardless of their job description. …

Source: Inside Canada’s sluggish process for deporting senior Iranian officials

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Laïcité dans les écoles: Un nombre « marginal » d’employés ont quitté, dit Sonia LeBel

2026/05/15 2 Comments

Downplaying the impact:

…Elle était questionnée par la députée libérale Madwa-Nika Cadet lors de l’étude des crédits budgétaires, un exercice de reddition de comptes qui se tient annuellement à l’Assemblée nationale.

Le projet de loi 94, adopté en octobre dernier, étend notamment l’interdiction du port de signes religieux à l’ensemble du personnel dans les écoles et dans les centres de services scolaires (CSS).

Une clause de droits acquis existe pour tous ceux ayant été embauchés avant le 19 mars 2025.

Mercredi, Mme Cadet a voulu savoir combien d’employés avaient été licenciés en raison de leur refus de se conformer à la nouvelle loi.

« C’est marginal, a répondu la ministre LeBel. À ma connaissance, on est dans les dizaines, même pas les centaines, même pas 100. C’est très minime. […] À ma connaissance, c’est très peu. »

Selon ses explications, la plupart des gens qui ont été contactés étaient sur des listes de rappel.

« La grande majorité de ces gens-là n’avaient pas enseigné dans le réseau de l’éducation depuis plusieurs années. […] Cent cinquante personnes ont été contactées et beaucoup là-dedans n’enseignent même plus.

« Les gens […] qui étaient dans des écoles, qui occupaient un poste dans des écoles (et qui ont quitté), je pense qu’on les compte sur les doigts de la main », a-t-elle insisté.

Le mois dernier, des syndicats avaient pourtant dénoncé la perte de 150 employés, dont des dizaines d’éducatrices en service de garde, des techniciennes en éducation spécialisée (TES) et des préposées aux élèves handicapés.

Ils avaient dit craindre, sur les ondes de Radio-Canada, que ces départs forcés n’accentuent la pénurie de personnel dans les écoles à Montréal.

Le Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) affirmait, lui aussi, que les congédiements allaient avoir un impact dans les écoles.

« La Coalition avenir Québec semble sous-estimer le défi de rétention de personnel touché par les dispositions du projet de loi 94 », a déclaré Mme Cadet, mercredi.

« Si plusieurs employées quittent, il y aura certainement des ruptures de services. Il faudrait tout de même se préparer à cette éventualité pour ne pas nuire aux élèves, alors que le milieu prépare déjà la prochaine rentrée scolaire », a-t-elle ajouté.

Selon les données du gouvernement, plus de 3100 postes (enseignants, personnel de soutien, professionnels) étaient toujours à pourvoir en date de février.

Source: Laïcité dans les écoles: Un nombre « marginal » d’employés ont quitté, dit Sonia LeBel

… She was questioned by Liberal MP Madwa-Nika Cadet during the study of budget appropriations, an accounting exercise held annually in the National Assembly.

Bill 94, adopted last October, extends in particular the ban on the wearing of religious signs to all staff in schools and school service centers (CSS).

An acquired rights clause exists for all those who were hired before March 19, 2025.

On Wednesday, Ms. Cadet wanted to know how many employees had been laid off because of their refusal to comply with the new law.

“It’s marginal,” replied Minister LeBel. To my knowledge, we are in the dozens, not even hundreds, not even 100. It’s very minimal. […] To my knowledge, this is very little. ”

According to his [her, translation program mistake] explanations, most of the people who were contacted were on recall lists.

“The vast majority of these people had not taught in the education network for several years. […] One hundred and fifty people have been contacted and many there do not even teach anymore.

“People […] who were in schools, who held a position in schools (and who left), I think we can count them on the fingers of the hand,” she insisted.

Last month, however, unions denounced the loss of 150 employees, including dozens of childcare educators, special education technicians (TES) and disabled student attendants.

They said they feared, on Radio-Canada, that these forced departures would accentuate the shortage of staff in schools in Montreal.

The Centre de services scolaires de Montréal (CSSDM) also said that layoffs would have an impact on schools.

“The Coalition avenir Québec seems to underestimate the challenge of staff retention affected by the provisions of Bill 94,” Cadet said on Wednesday.

“If several employees leave, there will certainly be service breaks. We should still prepare for this eventuality so as not to harm students, while the community is already preparing for the next school year, “she added.

According to government data, more than 3,100 positions (teachers, support staff, professionals) were still to be filled as of February.

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Jamie Sarkonak: The rake of diaspora politics hits Nate Erskine-Smith in the face

2026/05/15 Leave a comment

One view is that by allowing Permanent Residents to participate in candidate selection, political parties are facilitation overall integration. In discussions I have had on political representation benchmarks, some have maintained that the overall benchmark should be the number of both citizens and Permanent Residents, rather than citizens only. I favour citizens only and Sarkonak is correct to note the pandering nature and related electoral strategies:

…Well, we’ll see how the investigation goes. Already, some onlookers are gloating, seeing Erskine-Smith’s loss as a strike of karmic justice.

Erskine-Smith was absolutely one of them. He participated in Bangladeshi flag-raisings at city hall; he dressed up in the cultural garb. When he talks about immigration, he speaks in economic terms, not cultural terms. He speaks of the tide of asylum seekers as if they’re an inevitable force of nature, and of his desire to “regularize” the status of people who are in Canada illegally — a point so radical that even the CEO of the Century Initiative told him it’s not worth talking about.

But the conservatives out there should limit their gloating and use the moment to get their own house in order. They engage in diaspora politics all the same.

Without getting into any specific ridings, it’s not unusual for nomination races to be co-opted by diaspora interests. Conservative or Liberal.

Just as Liberals allow non-citizens to vote in their nominations, Conservatives do, too. When some members of the party sought to end the practice of allowing permanent residents to participate in nomination votes, they were shut down by the rest. This is a clear vector for foreign interference.

If individual parties can’t be trusted to ensure that the gears of democracy are turned by citizens only, then their hands should be forced by legislation. And at a higher level, they need to learn that diaspora pandering is like walking through a field of rakes. It might not whack you in the face today, but there’s always a risk it will — just ask Erskine-Smith.

Source: Jamie Sarkonak: The rake of diaspora politics hits Nate Erskine-Smith in the face

Filed under Multiculturalism, Politics Tagged with , , , ,

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