Nadeau: Les ballons de l’immigration

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

A reminder from Quebec service provider organizations that the provincial government has failed to act in terms of settlement services and in its public messaging blaming the federal government:

Cela fait plus d’une semaine, mais Mary Claire ne décolère pas. « Lorsque je vais m’être calmée, je vais appeler Denis. Je vais l’appeler, certain ! » Denis qui ? Trudel. Le député du coin, élu sous la bannière du Bloc québécois.

« Quand j’ai vu la publicité du Bloc, qui dit que c’est comme un “tout-inclus” pour les immigrants au Québec maintenant, j’avais envie de leur dire de commencer par venir voir c’est quoi, les conditions réelles de ces gens-là, avant de dire n’importe quoi ! C’est pas un “tout-inclus” pantoute ! Ça n’a pas d’allure de dire ça ! »

Sur la Rive-Sud dans la région de Montréal, Mary Claire Macleod dirige L’Entraide chez nous. Aucune demi-coquille de noix de coco, remplie à ras bord de piña colada, ne traîne dans ses locaux. À midi, une poignée de bénévoles et de permanents mangent leurs sandwiches. Ils attendent qu’arrive, sur le coup de 13 h, un lot de nécessiteux, comme on disait autrefois.

L’Entraide chez nous est installé dans le sous-sol d’une église plantée au milieu d’un quartier défavorisé, comme on dit aujourd’hui pour éviter d’être confronté au sens des mots pauvreté et inégalité. L’organisme a été fondé en 1970 par Mme Robidoux. Elle avait accouché de vingt-trois enfants, Mme Robidoux. Vingt-trois. Elle éprouvait la fragilité de son milieu. Un milieu laissé à lui-même, avec pour seule promesse d’avenir son lot de misères. C’était à l’heure où Robert Bourassa, nouveau premier ministre, se gargarisait de projets de béton et d’acier, au nom d’une modernité dont le monde d’en bas était exclu d’emblée. Bourassa est passé. La misère du quartier est restée.

Yvane Fournier et Diane Roberge distribuent du pain, des fruits, des légumes, de la viande congelée. Ça fait trente ans qu’elles travaillent là. « C’est pire que jamais », dit Yvane.

Ces bénévoles gardent leur téléphone portable à portée de main. Ils l’utilisent à tout moment pour traduire, en espagnol, quelques mots de français. « Le plus dur est de voir des hommes à mon bureau se mettre à pleurer. Ce sont eux qui craquent le plus, on dirait. Ils sont à bout », dit Mary Claire Macleod d’un air dépité.

« Les familles de nouveaux arrivants se retrouvent à devoir vivre les unes avec les autres », explique Lydie, une des responsables de l’accueil. Elle me parle de six adultes, forcés de vivre dans un 5 ½, avec une dizaine d’enfants. « Ils n’ont même pas de matelas pour tout le monde. »

Pour obtenir de quoi manger, il faut présenter sa carte. Les habitués de L’Entraide, avant, l’appelaient « la carte pain ». Cela dit bien le degré de précarité dont témoigne ce bout de carton plastifié.

« Avant, on offrait environ mille services de dépannage par an. Là, en moins de six mois, on en a déjà offert plus que ça », expose Mary Claire. Ce n’est pourtant pas la première fois que la situation est difficile. En 2001, après les attentats aux États-Unis, il y avait eu un afflux de demandes, se souvient-elle. En 2008 aussi, avec la crise financière. Et de nouveau en 2010, avec le tremblement de terre en Haïti. En 2017, pour aider les demandeurs d’asile, le Stade olympique avait été réquisitionné. Mais là, le soutien venu d’en haut fait défaut. Les organismes d’aide sont laissés à eux-mêmes. « En plus, la boîte de tomates coupées en dés que je payais 99 ¢ coûte maintenant le double. »

Pour Eva Gracia-Turgeon, coordonnatrice de Foyer du monde, un centre d’hébergement pour familles demandeuses d’asile, le gouvernement de la CAQ réussit un exploit en matière de communication politique. « La CAQ projette l’illusion que cette situation chaotique dépend entièrement du gouvernement fédéral. Beaucoup de gens achètent ça. Pourtant, c’est faux ! En fait, il faut savoir que, depuis la réouverture des frontières après la pandémie, le provincial n’a pas revu les services. Si ça va mal, c’est beaucoup par sa faute. C’est un gros shitshow. »

En principe, les demandeurs d’asile sont pris en charge par les services québécois du PRAIDA, un programme provincial remboursé par Ottawa. Ses assises remontent à 1956. En 2021, le bel édifice historique qu’occupaient les bureaux du PRAIDA, rue Saint-Denis, a été vidé. N’aurait-il pas pu servir encore, en ces temps où tout déborde ?

Durant la pandémie, le nombre de places d’hébergements du PRAIDA a été réduit, en raison de la fermeture temporaire des frontières. Les places n’ont pourtant pas augmenté depuis, même si tout est redevenu comme avant. Des dix sites d’hébergement, il n’en reste plus que deux, soit 1150 places au total. Ce qui est largement insuffisant. Des hôtels, que le fédéral utilisait pour des quarantaines, sont désormais réquisitionnés pour héberger les migrants, dans des conditions qui laissent beaucoup à désirer. On est loin de Playa del Carmen. « C’est le fédéral qui ramasse les pots cassés, parce que l’administration du PRAIDA ne relève pas de lui », explique Eva Gracia-Turgeon.

« Ça arrange Québec de ne pas bouger », dit Eva. « Ça donne l’impression que, par la seule faute d’Ottawa, nous n’avons pas la capacité de nous occuper de ces gens. Ce n’est pas vrai ! Si ça ne fonctionne pas en ce moment, c’est beaucoup parce que le gouvernement du Québec ne fait rien, qu’il laisse les groupes communautaires s’arranger tout seul, qu’il s’en lave les mains, tout en accusant le fédéral. » Personne ne penserait pour autant donner une médaille du mérite au fédéral.

Pendant ce temps, nos bretteurs aux épées de fer-blanc, ceux qui tiennent des propos incendiaires à propos des immigrants, ont trouvé là des cibles commodes et faciles. Hormis un temps d’arrêt pour considérer quelques ballons chinois, toute leur attention est pointée vers ces boucs émissaires, au nom d’une rhétorique identitaire. Au point de détourner l’attention publique de problèmes pourtant importants. C’est à se demander si nos vaillants tigres de papier, obnubilés par ce seul sujet, ne trouveraient pas le moyen de nous gonfler d’autres ballons si les migrants n’existaient pas. D’ailleurs, n’est-ce pas un peu ce qu’ils font déjà, en nous en parlant tout le temps ?

Source: Nadeau: Les ballons de l’immigration

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CSIS documents reveal Chinese strategy to influence 2021 election

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

Not a good take on the government’s (lack of) response and the naiveté of some:

China employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canada’s democracy in the 2021 federal election campaign as Chinese diplomats and their proxies backed the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – but only to another minority government – and worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered to be unfriendly to Beijing.

The full extent of the Chinese interference operation is laid bare in both secret and top-secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents viewed by The Globe and Mail that cover the period before and after the September, 2021, election that returned the Liberals to office.

The CSIS reports were shared among senior government officials and Canada’s Five Eyes intelligence allies of the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Some of this intelligence was also shared with French and German spy services.

Over the past decade, China, under President Xi Jinping, has adopted a more aggressive foreign policy as it seeks to expand its political, economic and military influence around the world.

MPs on the Commons Procedure and House Affairs committee are already looking into allegations that China interfered in the 2019 election campaign to support 11 candidates, most of them Liberal, in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Drawn from a series of CSIS intelligence-gathering operations, the documents illustrate how an orchestrated machine was operating in Canada with two primary aims: to ensure that a minority Liberal government was returned in 2021, and that certain Conservative candidates identified by China were defeated.

The documents say the Chinese Communist Party leadership in Beijing was “pressuring its consulates to create strategies to leverage politically [active] Chinese community members and associations within Canadian society.” Beijing uses Canadian organizations to advocate on their behalf “while obfuscating links to the People’s Republic of China.”

The classified reports viewed by The Globe reveal that China’s former consul-general in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling, boasted in 2021 about how she helped defeat two Conservative MPs.

But despite being seen by China as the best leader for Canada, Beijing also wanted to keep Mr. Trudeau’s power in check – with a second Liberal minority in Parliament as the ideal outcome.

In early July, 2021 – eight weeks before election day – one consular official at an unnamed Chinese diplomatic mission in Canada said Beijing “likes it when the parties in Parliament are fighting with each other, whereas if there is a majority, the party in power can easily implement policies that do not favour the PRC.”

While the Chinese diplomat expressed unhappiness that the Liberals had recently become critical of China, the official added that the party is better than the alternatives. Canada-China relations hit their lowest point since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre after December, 2018, when Beijing locked up two Canadians in apparent retaliation for Ottawa’s arrest of a Chinese Huawei executive on an extradition request from the United States.

Most important, the intelligence reports show that Beijing was determined that the Conservatives did not win. China employed disinformation campaigns and proxies connected to Chinese-Canadian organizations in Vancouver and the GTA, which have large mainland Chinese immigrant communities, to voice opposition to the Conservatives and favour the Trudeau Liberals.

The CSIS documents reveal that Chinese diplomats and their proxies, including some members of the Chinese-language media, were instructed to press home that the Conservative Party was too critical of China and that, if elected, it would follow the lead of former U.S. president Donald Trump and ban Chinese students from certain universities or education programs.

“This will threaten the future of the voters’ children, as it will limit their education opportunities,” the CSIS report quoted the Chinese consulate official as saying. The official added: “The Liberal Party of Canada is becoming the only party that the PRC can support.”

CSIS also explained how Chinese diplomats conduct foreign interference operations in support of political candidates and elected officials. Tactics include undeclared cash donations to political campaigns or having business owners hire international Chinese students and “assign them to volunteer in electoral campaigns on a full-time basis.”

Sympathetic donors are also encouraged to provide campaign contributions to candidates favoured by China – donations for which they receive a tax credit from the federal government. Then, the CSIS report from Dec. 20, 2021 says, political campaigns quietly, and illegally, return part of the contribution – “the difference between the original donation and the government’s refund” – back to the donors.

A key part of their interference operation is to influence vulnerable Chinese immigrants in Canada. The intelligence reports quote an unnamed Chinese consulate official as saying it’s “easy to influence Chinese immigrants to agree with the PRC’s stance.”

China wants to build acceptance abroad for its claims on Taiwan, a self-ruled island that it considers a breakaway province and still reserves the right to annex by force. And it seeks to play down its conduct in Xinjiang, where the office of former UN Human Rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet last year said China has committed “serious human-rights violations” in the region, which may amount to crimes against humanity.

Similarly it wants to generate support for a draconian 2020 national-security law to silence opposition and dissent in Hong Kong, a former British colony that Beijing had once promised would be allowed to retain Western-style civil liberties for 50 years.

Beijing also seeks to quell foreign support for Tibet, a region China invaded and annexed more than 70 years ago, and to discourage opposition to Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea and sweeping maritime claims in the region.

A month after the September, 2021, vote, CSIS reported that it was “well-known within the Chinese-Canadian community of British Columbia” that Ms. Tong, then the Vancouver consul-general, “wanted the Liberal Party to win the 2021 election,” one of the reports said.

CSIS noted that Ms. Tong, who returned to China in July, 2022, and former consul Wang Jin made “discreet and subtle efforts” to encourage members of Chinese-Canadian organizations to rally votes for the Liberals and defeat Conservative candidates.

CSIS said Mr. Wang has direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), a vast organization that uses mostly covert and often manipulative operations to influence overseas ethnic Chinese communities and foreign governments. CSIS said Mr. Wang served as an intermediary between the UFWD and Chinese-Canadian community leaders in British Columbia.

In early November, 2021, CSIS reported, Ms. Tong discussed the defeat of a Vancouver-area Conservative, whom she described as a “vocal distractor” of the Chinese government. A national-security source said the MP was Kenny Chiu. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source, who risks prosecution under the Security of Information Act.

The source said Mr. Chiu was targeted in retaliation for his criticism of China’s crackdown in Hong Kong and his 2021 private member’s bill aiming to establish a registry of foreign agents, an effort inspired by similar Australian legislation to combat foreign interference. The United States has a long-standing registry; Canada is still studying the matter.

Mr. Chiu, who was elected to represent Steveston–Richmond East in 2019, lost the 2021 federal election to Liberal candidate Parm Bains and is widely believed to be a victim of a Beijing-led online disinformation campaign.

According to CSIS, Ms. Tong talked about China’s efforts to influence mainland Chinese-Canadian voters against the Conservative Party. She said Mr. Chiu’s loss proved “their strategy and tactics were good, and contributed to achieving their goals while still adhering to the local political customs in a clever way.”

In mid-November, CSIS reported that an unnamed Chinese consular official said the loss of Mr. Chiu and fellow Conservative MP Alice Wong substantiated the growing electoral influence of mainland Chinese-Canadians.

Former federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has alleged that foreign interference by China in the 2021 election campaign, using disinformation, cost the party eight or nine seats. The Liberals won 160 seats compared with 119 for the Conservatives, 32 for the Bloc Québécois and 25 for the NDP, while the Greens picked up two seats.

While the Conservative Party’s overall share of the popular vote increased slightly in the election, the party lost a number of ridings with significant Chinese-Canadian populations. These included the defeat of incumbents such as Mr. Chiu, Richmond Centre MP Ms. Wong and Markham–Unionville’s Bob Saroya.

However, the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force set up by the Trudeau government to monitor threats to federal elections never issued any public warning about foreign interference during the 2019 or 2021 campaigns.

Mr. Trudeau has said it found no meddling, telling the Commons in November of last year that the task force “determined that the integrity of our elections was not compromised in 2019 or 2021.” He also told reporters that “Canadians can be reassured that our election integrity held” in the two elections.

The Globe has reported that the Prime Minister received a national-security briefing last fall in which he was told China’s consulate in Toronto had targeted 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election. CSIS Director David Vigneault told Mr. Trudeau that there was no indication that China’s interference efforts had helped elect any of them, despite the consulate’s attempts to promote the campaigns on social media and in Chinese-language media outlets.

Nine Liberal and two Conservative candidates were favoured by Beijing, according to the national-security source. The source said the two Conservative candidates were viewed as friends of China.

Source: CSIS documents reveal Chinese strategy to influence 2021 election

Filed under foreign policy, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Bouchard: La lutte contre la discrimination II – Pour une politique québécoise

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

Always worth reading. Of course, équilibre, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. And interculturalism, like multiculturalism, also has variants ranging from status quo to the more woke and activist:

Il presse pour la Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) de mettre en oeuvre une politique énergique de lutte contre la discrimination, une politique alignée sur les grands objectifs à atteindre et qui s’inspire des principes en vigueur, mais les traduit et les applique à notre façon. On devrait viser une approche originale qui s’accorde avec notre tempérament, nos traditions, notre culture, tout en nous affranchissant de la dépendance fédérale et de son moralisme intolérant.

Notre histoire offre plusieurs exemples de formules collectives novatrices que nous avons mises au point, parfois à l’encontre des voies convenues. Pensons à la façon dont, à partir des années 1960, nous avons conjugué l’essor de l’entreprise privée avec l’État partenaire, d’où a résulté une forme originale de capitalisme. Pensons aussi à l’adoption, durant les décennies qui ont suivi, de pratiques économiques néolibérales conjointement avec l’expansion du filet social (seulement pour la fin des années 1990, époque triomphante du néolibéralisme : assurance médicaments, garderies, congés parentaux, logement social). Nous avons également mis au point un modèle de gouvernance qui fait largement appel à la concertation générale sous la forme de sommets. Sur ces trois plans, le Québec a fait bande à part en Amérique.

Parallèlement, le syndicalisme grossissait ses rangs, la taille de l’État se maintenait, le chômage déclinait, l’économie sociale continuait son essor, la pauvreté et les inégalités diminuaient.

On trouve un phénomène similaire dans l’ouverture de la culture québécoise à la mondialisation, une manoeuvre audacieuse pour une culture inquiète de son avenir. Le Québec y a trouvé une voie pour démontrer sa créativité et exporter ses productions culturelles à travers la planète.

L’exemple le plus éloquent, peut-être, réside dans la façon dont nous avons étroitement conjugué un nationalisme fervent avec une philosophie libérale et des politiques progressistes. Peu de nations y sont arrivées. Aux yeux de nombreux Européens, ce genre de mariage est impossible.

Je peux en témoigner. À l’occasion de conférences en Europe, notamment en France, je faisais état de ce que nous avions réalisé. Le public manifestait un profond scepticisme. Dans la plupart des esprits, le nationalisme, c’était les horreurs des deux guerres mondiales : le racisme, la xénophobie, le génocide et la guerre (c’est une formule que le président Mitterrand affectionnait : « le nationalisme, c’est la guerre »). Puisque notre exemple ne convainquait pas, j’évoquais aussi les nationalismes écossais, finlandais, néo-zélandais… Rien à faire.

En matière d’intégration et de relations entre majorité et minorités, l’interculturalisme relève du même esprit : une formule qui bouscule certains tabous, prône la solidarité, les rapprochements et les interactions entre cultures. En se fondant sur une quête d’équilibre, d’équité, de pragmatisme, elle s’applique à raccorder des impératifs concurrents tout en laissant une grande autonomie aux acteurs sociaux. Pourtant, aucun de nos gouvernements n’a voulu jusqu’ici mettre cette formule à l’essai alors qu’entre-temps, le multiculturalisme canadien gagne rapidement du terrain à Montréal (voir La métropole contre la nation ? de David Carpentier, 2022).

La lutte contre la discrimination appelle un effort de même nature : poursuivre en matière d’équité et de protection des droits les mêmes objectifs, les mêmes valeurs, mais en suivant nos voies. Cependant, il faudrait d’abord dégager le terrain de certains obstacles, notamment l’aversion de M. Legault pour la notion de racisme systémique, coupable apparemment de faire passer tous les Québécois pour des racistes, ce qui n’est évidemment pas le cas.

Si l’expression choque au point de freiner le combat contre le racisme, il n’y a qu’à la contourner. Parlons d’une forme spécifique de discrimination qu’on pourrait qualifier de banalisée, au sens que, souvent inconsciente, elle est incrustée dans les mentalités, les stéréotypes, les coutumes, les pratiques courantes, d’où découle une forme d’institutionnalisation de facto.

Rappelons-nous qu’autrefois, le dimanche était un jour de congé réservé au culte. Mais il s’agissait du culte chrétien, sans égard pour les autres. C’était aussi l’époque où les femmes étaient tenues pour faibles, émotives, inaptes à exercer diverses responsabilités. De nombreux Noirs et musulmans sont présentement soumis à un traitement analogue. Et tout récemment, nous avons appris de la bouche de nos gouvernants que les immigrants sont réfractaires à nos valeurs, rejettent le français, refusent de travailler et menacent la cohésion sociale… C’est sur de telles bases que se construit la discrimination banalisée.

Un autre obstacle réside dans une conception radicale du racisme systémique (ou banalisé). Ici, le danger est de provoquer dans la population des effets dissuasifs similaires aux excès du nouveau multiculturalisme. Il ne s’agit nullement de diluer la notion de racisme ou d’édulcorer les politiques destinées à le contrer. Il s’agit simplement de ne pas susciter des résistances pour de mauvaises raisons.

En somme, oui pour les valeurs EDI (équité, diversité, inclusion), bien sûr, et pour les objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU, mais modelés et appliqués à notre manière. Ce serait le bon moment pour une offensive gouvernementale dont la première étape consisterait à inventorier les réflexions et les propositions déjà mises en avant chez nous pour en extraire les prémisses d’un modèle québécois. Un exemple : agir contre la discrimination en aval, certes, mais plus encore en amont, comme l’a suggéré Patrick Moreau dans Le Devoir du 7 février.

C’est une tâche qui demandera un effort collectif, incluant celui des administrations universitaires dont certaines se font très conciliantes avec les diktats du multiculturalisme afin de conserver les subventions fédérales. La mise en garde adressée récemment par la ministre Pascale Déry dans Le Devoir du 17 janvier était donc bienvenue, tout comme l’objectif d’« équilibre » qu’elle préconise.

Source: La lutte contre la discrimination II – Pour une politique québécoise

Filed under Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Near Roxham Road, RCMP border patrol relies on locals’ help – and tests their patience

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

Interesting account regarding the local residents affected:

While politicians in Ottawa and Quebec City bicker and negotiate over what to do about Roxham Road, locals must put up with frequent RCMP stops while at the same time trying to keep an eye open to help Mounties enforce border rules.

Matthias Kaiser, a farmer who owns land in the area near what is now internationally known as the official unofficial point of entry for asylum seekers in Canada, is used to interacting with law-enforcement agents from both sides of the border.

But with the rise in irregular crossings at Roxham Road and the RCMP operation there, “it’s more severe now,” he said. Mr. Kaiser, members of his family and his employees were all stopped on several occasions by the RCMP last fall.

Once, he was intercepted while driving with his wife on Alberton Road – Mr. Kaiser’s private farm road lined by his soy, alfalfa, and corn fields that runs 2½ kilometres to the east of Roxham Road and is the subject of intense scrutiny by the RCMP. Five police cars came after them.

“Unbelievable. I thought they were going to arrest me … When they asked me what I [was doing] here, I said, ‘Well, I drive on my road, and what are you doing on my road?’ ” Mr. Kaiser recalled.

He allowed the RCMP to patrol Alberton Road under the condition that they “put some gravel down once in a while,” something they have not done yet, he said.

On another occasion last fall, officers stopped his youngest son, driving with a Guatemalan employee. Somebody had to go and get the employee’s paperwork to prove he was not being smuggled.

RCMP officers also stopped other employees during harvest time while they were transporting truckloads of grain, saying they were looking for someone who got out of a car in the area. The interruption disrupted Mr. Kaiser’s operations, and he lost patience with the officers. “I had to apologize” after the heated exchange, the farmer said.

“I’m surprised they’re not here yet,” Mr. Kaiser said of the RCMP when The Globe and Mail met him on the private road Friday morning.

Sure enough, the flashing lights of a police cruiser and two agents appeared near The Globe’s rental vehicle parked on the farm road. Constable Tommy Pepin politely asked for ID and explained they wanted to make sure the vehicle was not abandoned by someone who planned to cross the U.S. border through the fields on foot.

Mr. Kaiser stressed that he has nothing against the officers and wants to maintain a good relationship with the RCMP. Most stops are short, he said, and he understands the importance for federal agents to look for potential smugglers.

But he questions the relevance of such efforts on the Canadian side. “They’re running after us, they’re running after one man but on the other hand, they let thousands come in, which they have no control over,” he reasoned, referring to Roxham Road.

The famous cul-de-sac, at the border between New York State and Quebec’s Montérégie region, has become the primary route for irregular entries into Canada in recent years. The RCMP intercepted 39,171 asylum seekers who did not use official ports of entry to enter Quebec in 2022, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data, compared with just 369 in the rest of the country.

People who cross irregularly elsewhere are often brought to the RCMP’s Roxham Road facility for their application to be processed there, said Sergeant Charles Poirier, a spokesperson for the Mounties.

The long-standing Safe Third Country Agreement requires border agents from the United States and Canada to turn away asylum seekers from the other country if they arrive at official land border crossings. Because of this and given all the media attention it has received, most people coming from the U.S. who want to claim asylum in Canada use Roxham Road to avoid being turned away.

But sometimes, through bad luck, lack of knowledge of the area or for other reasons, people cross elsewhere, Sgt. Poirier said.

The RCMP’s main concern remains the smuggling of items such as firearms and drugs, he said. As the interaction with Constable Pepin showed, Mounties are also on the watch for smugglers and migrants going the opposite direction, into the U.S., sometimes risking their lives trying to cross in isolated areas in difficult weather.

This is likely what happened to Fritznel Richard, a Haitian migrant whose body was found on Mr. Kaiser’s land on Jan. 5. A little less than a year earlier, an Indian family of four died near the borderbetween Manitoba and the U.S.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection noticed a drastic uptick in recent months of people trying to enter North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin illegally from Canada. Swanton sector, which includes counties in New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, also had “historic highs” of apprehensions and encounters with migrants illegally crossing into the U.S., the U.S. border service said in a news release last week.

Sgt. Poirier worked for years with the local RCMP detachment, whose agents take care of Roxham Road arrivals and patrol a vast territory between Valleyfield and Lake Memphremagog. He said good relationships with locals are paramount to help prevent smuggling and avoid other deaths.

Dominique Martin, the owner of Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle’s Coolbreeze camping, said RCMP officers have questioned his clients on occasion. “If you walk on the road with a backpack, they are sure to stop you,” he said. Conversely, Mr. Martin called the Mounties several times when taxis left people near the campground, suspecting they made the hour drive from Montreal to cross irregularly into the U.S.

“It’s often people who call us,” Sgt. Poirier said of the locals. The RCMP monitors numerous surveillance cameras on the border, but “we need their intelligence,” he stressed.

Source: Near Roxham Road, RCMP border patrol relies on locals’ help – and tests their patience

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A surge of temporary residents is boosting demand for homes in supply-starved market 

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

More on immigration and housing:

A record-setting influx of temporary residents is putting additional strain on the Canadian housing market, just as the construction industry is pulling back on new builds.

By the end of 2022 there were roughly 1.95 million people from abroad with temporary work or study permits in the country, an increase of about 560,000 (40 per cent) over the previous year, according to recently published figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The International Mobility Program accounted for slightly more than one million of those permits – a new high, up more than 300,000 in a year. The program covers a broad group of people, including the spouses of skilled workers and company transfers from foreign offices.

There were slightly more than 800,000 study permit holders at the end of last year, also a record high. Another 120,000 people held permits under the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program, the most since at least 2000.

Canada is deliberately raising its intake of immigrants, with the goal of admitting 500,000 permanent residents annually by 2025. However, that reflects just a portion of newcomers to the country.

Based on the latest estimates, in the third quarter of 2022 Canada’s population grew at its quickest pace in more than 50 years, mostly because of the increase in temporary residents. Their ranks grew by more than 225,000 during the three-month period, well above the previous record. Many of them aspire to stay in Canada permanently.

Experts say the country is increasingly moving to a two-step immigration process, in which people come for an education or work experience, then apply for permanent resident status.

In recent months, the federal government has been criticized for its immigration policies, particularly when the country is struggling to build enough homes and deliver basic medical services.

It has become “an unplanned, unmanaged, improvised immigration system,” said Anne Michèle Meggs, a former director of planning and accountability at Quebec’s Immigration Ministry. “Who is this helping?”

To some degree, special circumstances have contributed to the population surge. Canada has been admitting thousands of people fleeing Ukraine since the Russian invasion, and there has been a forceful rebound in the number of international students, many of whom delayed their studies here during the acute phases of the pandemic.

Still, the spike in temporary residents over the past year was “driven” by people with work permits, Statistics Canada said in its latest population report.

The federal government is courting more foreign workers, broadening access to low-wage workers through the TFW program and allowing foreign students to work longer hours – moves that it says are aimed at easing labour shortages.

Several economists have criticized Ottawa for flooding the market with cheap labour and suppressing wages.

Meanwhile, colleges and universities have dramatically increased the enrolment of foreign students, who pay significantly more in tuition than their domestic peers. There are no limits on this form of migration.

Many newcomers are discovering that homes in Canada are both pricey and in short supply.

A report by Desjardins Securities published this week said residential home construction would need to immediately increase by 50 per cent through the end of 2024 in order to support higher immigration targets and keep prices from climbing further.

It does not appear that will happen. Facing steep costs and higher interest rates, some developers are cancelling or delaying projects. Earlier this week, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported that housing starts fell 13 per cent in January from December, to an annualized pace of about 215,000 units.

In parts of Ontario with a population of 10,000 and higher, housing starts fell 31 per cent to an annual rate of roughly 71,500 units. That is well below the provincial government’s target of building 150,000 units a year for the next decade to alleviate the housing crisis.

“It certainly makes sense that building activity would be cooling amid a steep drop in sales and prices,” Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter said in a note to clients, referencing the recent slump in real estate activity amid higher borrowing costs.“Notwithstanding the broad and wide calls for the need for massive increases in new home construction in Canada, the reality is that starts are dictated by the market, and not by pundits.”

Source: A surge of temporary residents is boosting demand for homes in supply-starved market

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Yakabuski: Déplacer le problème

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

Good analysis of the issues and the problem for the government, particularly should the Supreme Court rule against the STCA. Potential for a comparable impact to the 1985 Singh decision which required the government to provide due process to anyone who arrived on Canadian soil:

La ministre de l’Immigration du Québec, Christine Fréchette, s’est dite heureuse d’apprendre que les autorités fédérales avaient transféré vers l’Ontario la presque totalité des quelque 500 demandeurs d’asile arrivés par le chemin Roxham en fin de semaine dernière. Selon Mme Fréchette, voilà bien la preuve que le gouvernement du Québec « peut avoir des résultats » en exprimant sans cesse son mécontentement face à l’inaction d’Ottawa devant le flux grandissant de migrants irréguliers qui passent par le chemin Roxham depuis sa réouverture, en novembre 2021.

La ministre Fréchette a imploré le gouvernement fédéral de continuer d’envoyer ailleurs au Canada plus des trois quarts des demandeurs d’asile qui traversent ce poste frontalier non officiel pour ne laisser au Québec qu’une proportion de migrants équivalente à son poids démographique au sein de la fédération canadienne. « On espère que ça va se maintenir dans le temps, et que ça va être la nouvelle approche de gestion de la frontière », a-t-elle ajouté.

Toutefois, le bonheur des uns fait parfois le malheur des autres. Dans la région de Niagara, dans le sud de l’Ontario, l’arrivée des migrants en provenance du chemin Roxham suscite de vives inquiétudes chez les autorités municipales et les organismes de bienfaisance. Cette région est dotée d’un plus grand nombre de chambres d’hôtel que la moyenne en raison de sa vocation touristique, active surtout en été. Alors, il n’est pas surprenant qu’Ottawa l’ait choisie comme destination pour les migrants que le Québec dit ne plus avoir la capacité d’accueillir.

Or, alors que le gouvernement s’apprêterait à louer environ 2000 chambres d’hôtel afin d’y loger temporairement les migrants dans le sud de l’Ontario, certains intervenants expriment des réserves sur la nouvelle stratégie d’Ottawa. « Sans préavis, sans préparation, cela nous met dans une position très difficile, a affirmé cette semaine le maire de Niagara Falls, Jim Diodati, dans une entrevue au St. Catharines Standard. Comment pouvons-nous gérer une situation comme celle-ci quand nous avons déjà une crise du logement et une crise d’accessibilité au logement ? Cela va absolument exacerber un problème déjà existant. » À quelques semaines du début de la saison touristique printanière, il a dit prévoir « un gros problème » à l’horizon.

En agissant de la sorte dans ce dossier, le gouvernement du premier ministre Justin Trudeau démontre de nouveau ses piètres capacités en matière de gestion de crise. Il est pris entre sa base progressiste, qui souhaiterait ouvrir les frontières canadiennes à tous ceux « qui fuient la persécution, la terreur et la guerre » — comme M. Trudeau avait lui-même promis de le faire en 2017 dans un gazouillis dorénavant entré dans l’histoire —, et les contradictions de ses propres politiques d’immigration.

Les véritables réfugiés se voient damer le pion par des passeurs qui exploitent la vulnérabilité des migrants fuyant des conditions de vie difficiles en Amérique latine ou en Afrique pour leur retirer le peu d’argent dont ils disposent. On a beau vouloir être généreux envers ces personnes, l’intégrité de notre système d’immigration en prend pour son rhume et le Canada consolide sa réputation de passoire dont profite quiconque veut s’en prévaloir.

Ottawa se trouve dépourvu d’arguments face à un gouvernement américain qui n’a aucun intérêt à accéder à sa demande de « moderniser » l’Entente sur les tiers pays sûrs (ETPS). Les quelque 40 000 demandeurs d’asile qui sont arrivés au Canada par le chemin Roxham en 2022 ne constituent qu’une goutte d’eau dans l’océan migratoire américain. Même des politiciens démocrates comme le maire de New York, Eric Adams, ne voient pas pourquoi ils devraient se priver d’utiliser cette « faille » dans l’ETPS pour pallier quelque peu leur propre crise migratoire. Avouons-le, leur crise est infiniment plus sérieuse que la nôtre.

Alors, quoi faire ? Le transfert des demandeurs d’asile du chemin Roxham vers les autres provinces permet peut-être au gouvernement fédéral de réduire la pression sur le Québec, mais il risque de créer des tensions ailleurs au pays. Il est aussi possible que les passeurs voient dans la démarche fédérale un geste qui facilite leur travail. La capacité d’accueil du Québec atteint peut-être ses limites, mais le transfert par Ottawa des demandeurs d’asile vers l’Ontario crée plus de possibilités pour les profiteurs du système.

Espérons que le gouvernement Trudeau se dotera d’un plan B au cas où la Cour suprême invaliderait l’Entente sur les tiers pays sûrs. En 2020, la Cour fédérale avait trouvé que cette entente violait le droit à la vie, à la liberté et à la sécurité de la personne garanti par la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés. La Cour d’appel fédérale avait par la suite infirmé cette décision.

Toutefois, la notion selon laquelle les États-Unis ne constituent pas un pays « sûr » pour les demandeurs d’asile jouit de l’appui de beaucoup d’adeptes au Canada. En cas d’invalidation de l’ETPS, le Canada devrait accueillir tous les demandeurs d’asile qui arrivent en provenance des États-Unis, même ceux qui passent par un poste frontalier officiel. Cela créerait un méchant dilemme pour M. Trudeau, au point de peut-être même le forcer à répudier le fameux gazouillis dont il semble encore si fier.

Source: Déplacer le problème

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COVID-19 Immigration Effects – December 2022 update

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

Full-year data for 2022 across the suite of immigration programs.

The government continues to make progress on backlogs although the percentage failing to meet service standards has largely not improved: temporary residence 45 percent, permanent residence 48 percent and citizenship 28 percent. The backlog of visitor visas, highlighted in recent media articles, remains high at 70 percent (Dec 31 data).

All programs show a seasonal decrease in December except where noted.

PRs: 435,000 in 2022 compared to 404,000 in 2021. Drop in TR2PR transitions, from 279,000 in 2021 to 177,000 in 2022. Quebec 69,000 in 2022, compared to 50,000 in 2021 (despite public debates).

TRs/IMP: 494,000 in 2022 compared to 326,000 in 2021.

TRs/TFWP: 137,000 in 2022 compared to 106,000 in 2021.

Students: December end-of-year increase. 576,000 in 2022 compared to 469,000 in 2021.

Asylum claimants: Increased in December compared to November. 92,000 in 2022 compared to 25,000 in 2021. I have added a slide on “irregular arrivals” and their percentage of total asylum claimants.

Settlement Services (July): Decrease compared to June. YTD 1,031,000, 2021 same period 918,000.

Citizenship: 369,000 in 2022 compared to 137,000 in 2021.

Visitor Visas. Stable compared to November. 1,238,000 in 2022 compared to 236,000 in 2021.

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with ,

Japan to grant residency to high-earning professionals after 1 year

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

Shift of note, even if limited:

The Japanese government decided Friday to update immigration rules in hopes of luring world-class talent, including through slashing the wait for high-earning professionals to obtain permanent residency.

Japan currently grants visas to highly skilled professionals under a point-based system, accounting for factors like academic history, work experience and research achievements. Those in this category can obtain permanent residency after up to three years instead of the typical 10.

The update, which the government hopes to implement in April, shortens the period to one year for researchers and engineers who make at least 20 million yen ($149,000) annually and have either a graduate degree or at least 10 years of work experience.

Source: Japan to grant residency to high-earning professionals after 1 year

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Critical considerations for the future of the public service

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

Hard to argue with the principles enunciated but perhaps even harder to think that this would result in meaningful change (which is hard given ministerial and bureaucratic roles and perspectives). The track record of previous reform efforts is not encouraging…:

In a December 2022 column in Policy Options, “Canada needs a royal commission to fix problems with the federal public service,” Kathryn May conveyed Donald Savoie’s reluctant call for a royal commission to explore the state of the Canadian public service and its future direction. Many different reasons were highlighted. The public service is overloaded, relying on slow and outdated processes. There has been rapid growth after COVID and yet – despite an arguably quick pivot to implement government policies – it has been slow to handle the demand for essential services. It also seems incapable of responding in a timely manner to access-to-information requests despite politicians’ trumpeting of “open government.”

We could also add that there are long-held concerns about top public servants being too responsive to the government of the day, along with central agencies micro-managing and contributing to the centralization of power in the Prime Minister’s Office. There have been concerns about declining or insufficient skills or resources, and over-reliance on consultants and human resource practices that have led to a risk-averse culture.

These issues are concerning and deserve attention, but a royal commission would not be a productive way to resolve them. Instead, implementing a review process that’s designed correctly from the beginning is important. That means striking a balance between the political side and the department leadership, regional representatives and public servants, aided by some external perspective. Perhaps most importantly, the first phase needs to be taking stock of the changes that have occurred since the pandemic especially, and understanding the motivations for change while assessing gaps in capabilities and opportunities for reform.

Why the lack of enthusiasm for a comprehensive review?

There have been more than 20 federal reviews and reform efforts since 1867, each with their own attributes. Phil Charko and Stephen Van Dinehave identified several initiatives since the 1980s. Recent initiatives such as Blueprint 2020 and Beyond2020, were not, in fact, “blueprints,” but invitations to “experiment” in a “bottom-up” way, with no systematic reporting about how the contours and capabilities of the public service and its organizations were evolving.

Likewise, former prime minister Stephen Harper’s embedded strategic and operational reviews (2010-15) were efforts to reduce costs and rethink specific lines of business internally, not efforts to reimagine the overall management of the public service. In short, there has been neither stock-taking nor a rethink of the direction of the public service overall.

One could conclude that political and public service leaders have been disinterested or unaware of the need for reform, but some former Privy Council clerks (for example, Paul Tellier and Michael Wernick) have been among those issuing calls for reform – sometimes after they left the public service. There are also calls for reform coming from academics or civil society that are difficult to ignore.

A more generous interpretation is that political and public service leaders are too focused on immediate policy priorities with few resources to call for a wide-ranging assessment. Or, like Savoie, they may experience the issues and see the need for reform but have reservations about the merits of relying on a royal commission. Indeed, they have not considered alternatives other than centrally driven, closely held senior-led approaches.

The fact is that the public service is aware of its challenges. Countless internal and external reports have provided direction for needed reforms and when given political and financial support, they can be innovative and accomplish a great deal (look to Citizens First as an example).

Most issues and frustrations are not new, but the call for sustained action and continuous reflection is more urgent than ever. However, even if largely self-managed by the public service and its leaders, concerted reform requires the interest and support of prime ministers, as well as responding to recommendations in a timely way.

Why not a royal commission?

Royal commissions vary in size and scope, are usually convened outside government and are given a mandate and budget. Commissioners are appointed, reflecting their scope, who then refine and operationalize their mandates and appoint staff, commission research, receive submissions, and hold hearings. Sometimes public servants are seconded to assist, and often scholars and experts are asked to provide advice and undertake research. The entity works apart from the public service and can take on a life of its own. It is more of a topical treatment than a cure.

Moreover, though often quoted, royal commissions seldom show tangible results in actual public service reforms or behavioural change. They are excellent for spotting or tapping into talent, developing new advisory networks, consolidating knowledge and identifying new approaches and generating new ideas.

However, given the changing political environment and working in a social-media environment, governments have not been willing to convene royal commissions. Instead, public inquiries have been the preferred approach – and only if there has been a serious failure or scandal such as the Gomery Inquiry or the Phoenix pay system.

Aside from the mechanics of how to better deliver on its responsibilities, what has not taken place since the 1960 Glassco Commission is an analysis of the organization and delivery changes in public responsibilities. This seems important in the wake of the pandemic.

An understanding of how programs and the public service have evolved, an appraisal of recent practices, new ideas about future directions and removing barriers for transformation is needed. Given the pace of change and the institutional limitations, royal commissions, blue-ribbon panels and task forces are unlikely to be accepted nor perceived as useful internally if they are regarded as one-time initiatives. Likewise, a top-down internal approach modeled on PS2000 (1989) or LaRelève (1997) will not generate the legitimacy and commitment from public servants.

What are some considerations for ongoing review?

Several key elements are critical for reviewing how the public service has evolved and what needs to happen next. The design must acknowledge the realities of working in and around public services, how change takes place and what is required to anchor it over time. These include:

1. Institutional complexity. The federal public service is extremely large, with more than 80 departments and agencies employing approximately 320,000 people in 2020 – a number that is expected to increase to more than 400,000 by 2025. An overly centralized approach is likely to be met with resistance, if not outright rejection. The public service is disparate, disaggregated and decentralized. The process must anticipate the differences in mandates, responsibilities, structures and cultures, and at what level changes or reforms are needed.

2. Engaging the diversity of public-service talent. Public servants from various areas must be engaged and must participate. Different competencies will be needed to understand change and reform efforts while taking advantage of central versus regional perspectives.

3. Tapping into external perspectives. Practitioners leading the initiative may need to heed various external perspectives. For example, including the beneficiaries of programs and services could help to understand the changing nature of relationships with vulnerable communities, the shifting boundaries between public and private, and the interconnectedness of jurisdictions and responsibilities. Current efforts to address public health reforms is a good example.

4. Anticipating how reform actually takes place. Few believe that top-down reforms or “fixes” will have much impact on behaviours. Change and innovation stem from meeting governmental priorities as expressed by ministers through mandate letters or other directives. These should determine how departments and agencies organize themselves if accompanied with appropriate financial and political support, and related accountabilities.

5. Effective reform is ongoing. This is about developing an approach to reform that requires introducing new operational repertoires dependent on data for evidence-based decision-making. Instead of one-time exercises, ongoing reviews must be built into routines with a learning focus that feeds departmental plans.

6. The need for political attention, monitoring and reporting. No approach will be effective if efforts are not properly monitored so that public servants can visualize real-time shifts by leaders and the implications for their place in these changes.

In short, forward-looking decisions must be undertaken that balance the perspectives of politicians and staffers, public service leaders, regional bodies, rank-and-file public servants, and concerned and affected citizens. The way forward is to move away from subjective and sporadic reform efforts to a routine system that generates institutional learning based on ongoing evidence. This will take significant commitment to create but may generate the momentum needed that previous reform efforts could not sustain. For the present, however, an initial analysis of changes occurring, understanding motivations for change, assessing gaps in capabilities, identifying opportunities for reform and future needs should be undertaken – and be done quickly with clear steps throughout.

Source: Critical considerations for the future of the public service

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Cosh: The Incredibly Exploding Canada

2023/02/18 Leave a comment

More on the wake-up cry on immigration related to housing availability and affordability.

But why Cosh or his editors have to include a juvenile aside on the Globe “inferior national newspaper,” in general and at a time of Postmedia cuts, is beyond me:

It seems like only a few weeks since us newspaper halfwits were trying to absorb the astonishing news that the population of Canada had grown almost one per cent in three months. (“A few” turns out to mean “eight.”) In the meantime, nobody in Canada’s press has said very much about a Jan. 25 economics memorandum from the CIBC’s Benjamin Tal, which carries a somewhat disturbing message: we ain’t seen nothing yet. 

Tal’s concern is how we analyze the immediate future of housing markets in Canada. Newspapermen focus, perhaps naturally, on the headline details of federal-government targets for new permanent residents. These are already being increased at full throttle, with universal approval from the general public: new permanent resident (NPR) approvals are expected to hit 465,000 in 2023. Does this mean we need to somehow create housing (to say nothing of other infrastructure and social resources) for 465,000 new people and then more each year going forward? 

Well, the good news is that the answer to that question is “no.” Many new permanent residents are people who were already living in the country as students or temporary workers. While international travel was choked off during the pandemic, most new permanent residents were people already here, and so immigration figures didn’t represent new demand for housing and other socioeconomic supports. 

But this changed in 2022, which accounts for the remarkable spike in the observed population. Most new permanent residents last year came from outside the country, and this was coupled with a surge in arrivals of non-permanent residents, including about 140,000 Ukrainians who took immediate advantage of the humanitarian Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program. CUAET includes a three-year, more-or-less-unconditional work visa. 

The Ukrainians are merely a small part of this story, but they provide a hint as to why NPR numbers are more volatile and harder to forecast than the permanent-resident approvals, which are relatively easy for the federal government to enumerate and limit. Even as Ottawa crowbars the permanent resident-based immigration mainstream ever wider, industry is demanding more permits for temporary workers (don’t you know there’s a labour shortage?) and universities are frantically trying to rebuild their international student numbers. Actual NPR arrivals to Canada jumped from 258,000 in 2021 to at least 700,000 in 2022, Tal thinks. 

I hardly need to add that, this being Canada, reaching this estimate required digging into customized data from the immigration department. “Official published sources” don’t break down new permanent residents into “already here” and “newly arriving,” and Statistics Canada’s population projections have a habit of underestimating future NPR flows. 

“Together,” Tal concludes, net “permanent residents and NPR arrivals from outside Canada in 2022 amounted to an estimated 955,000, representing an unprecedented swing in housing demand in a single year that is currently not fully reflected in official figures.” He goes on to remind the reader that 340,000 Ukrainian holders of approved CUAET visas have not yet come to Canada, and there is a backlog of another 300,000 applications that haven’t been looked at. (The war in Ukraine, one should add, shows no sign of immediately ending; and who knows what unforeseen conflicts might inspire the creation of a second or third or nth emergency visa program?) 

Meanwhile, if you believe the inferior national newspaper, the feds are considering dealing with their notorious and awful immigration backlog by slashing the Gordian knot of visitor visas, waiving the eligibility rules for those and rubber-stamping 500,000 applications all in one wad. This would help Canadian tourism and conference organizing a great deal — but it would also be likely to send that unpredictable “net arrivals” figure through the roof. The discussion memorandum obtained by the Globe, let us note, explicitly considered the possibility that this might be best done in secret without an official announcement.

Source: Cosh: The Incredibly Exploding Canada

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