Derek Burney: Serious government downsizing should start at the top

2025/08/07 Leave a comment

A mixture of some I agree with, some that he should know better given his time in government and heading the Harper transition team and others that are grounded in his ideological perspective. And while greater private sector perspectives and interchanges needed, not sure that previous experience justifies such confidence (without the extreme Musk/DOGE example):

“…Here are some practical suggestions:

1. As the government’s Chief Human Resources Officer has attested, there are too many senior executives in the public service, slowing productivity and creating workplace conflicts. Sharp cuts are needed to excessive ADM (Assistant Deputy Minister) positions and the government should consider eliminating one complete level of senior management — the position of Directors General. Superfluous positions like “Deputy” Director or “Associate” Deputy Minister — extra baggage causing sluggish performance — should be removed.

2. The Treasury Board Secretariat, ostensibly responsible for program management and controlling growth, has failed abysmally at its fundamental role and should be revamped and headed by an external business executive with a proven track record for efficient results.

3. All woke-induced prescriptions like DEI should be dropped, giving more exclusive value to meritocracy with clear descriptions of achievement goals and accountability for all senior public service positions.

4. The government’s faint-hearted effort to recognize the importance of artificial intelligence was to designate a minister with the responsibility but with few specific duties or resources. AI is the most significant technological innovation in more than a century. Implemented with appropriate guard rails to prevent misuse, Artificial Intelligence can reduce waste in government, sharpen technological innovation, improve productivity and expedite decision-making. It will require substantial investments in energy to serve new data centres, to update our electricity grid and develop new technologies. The Americans are moving at warp speed to maintain their global lead. Canada cannot afford to stand pat.

5. The military cannot be spared especially with the massive increase in spending it will belatedly receive. As the ranks were reduced in the past two decades, the ratio of enlisted personnel to officers rose substantially to 2.8:1 whereas the U.S. Marines is at 7.1:1. That trend undermines any notion that more funds will produce better performance. The current model of procurement is flawed with overlapping responsibilities among different departments and ever-lengthening overruns on delivery. The system should be outsourced to an independent tribunal with knowledge and experience relating to current technologies. Australia may offer a compelling model.

6. All governments in Canada should stop pandering to Indigenous groups with gratuitous expressions of atonement as in King Charles’ speech from the throne (written by the PMO/PCO), and at major events across Canada. Giving Indigenous communities real partnerships in major, national-interest projects would do much more for their well-being than sanctimonious verbal expressions of regret.

7. It is time to drive a stake through the climate hysteria that has stifled economic development for more than two decades. As Joe Oliver articulated cogently in these columns, public concern about climate change has declined dramatically in Canada. In 2022, 73 per cent of Canadians believed we were confronting a climate emergency. But now only four per cent say climate change is the No. 1 issue facing the country, according to a recent Leger poll. Many favour instead efforts to expedite pipelines to tidewater that “will bring economic growth, employment, energy security and funding for social programs or tax relief.”

Remaining vestiges of climate hypocrisy, including some in the current cabinet, stubbornly support unrealistic EV mandates and inconsistent wind-power farms that blight our physical environment. “Net-zero” targets are patently unrealistic. All are being rejected by the U.S. while it accelerates conventional energy development. Growing climate realism should give Canadian politicians the courage to implement energy projects needed to secure economic growth.

8. For serious downsizing, the government should assign the role to an external panel of five credible business executives with relevant knowledge and experience.

Prime Minister Mark Carney gained a spectacular victory in the April election (due partly to the relatively inept performance by the Opposition Leader and his campaign team.) Carney has about six more months to demonstrate that he can act forcefully on that victory. Otherwise, confidence and trust will evaporate as quickly as it did for his predecessor. The challenge begins in the government itself where he has unfettered control.”

Source: Derek Burney: Serious government downsizing should start at the top

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Décision rendue fin juillet | Une première peine adaptée aux criminels racisés au Québec

2025/08/07 Leave a comment

Of note:

Dans une décision récente rendue fin juillet au palais de justice de Longueuil, la juge Magali Lepage a condamné l’accusé Frank Paris à 24 mois de prison dans une affaire de trafic de cannabis et de haschich. Ce dernier avait déjà plaidé coupable. Jusqu’ici, rien d’inhabituel.

Or, pour déterminer sa peine, la juge a considéré la jurisprudence, une analyse de la preuve, une balance des facteurs aggravants et atténuants… mais aussi une évaluation de l’impact de l’origine ethnique ou culturelle (EIOEC), une analyse particulière qui se penche sur le parcours personnel d’un criminel à travers la loupe des barrières systémiques auxquelles il a pu faire face.

Après la lecture de l’évaluation, la juge a décidé d’accepter la suggestion de la défense, presque un an plus courte que celle de la poursuite.

Il s’agit d’une première au Québec. Aucun juge québécois n’avait considéré une EIOEC dans la détermination d’une peine jusqu’au 28 juillet dernier. La décision risque donc de faire jurisprudence dans le contexte québécois. De telles procédures existent depuis 2014, ailleurs au Canada.

Qu’est-ce qu’une EIOEC ?

Une EIOEC est un rapport présentenciel d’experts qui est utilisé pour déterminer la peine d’une personne racisée – mais qui est surtout utilisé pour les personnes noires. Elle est donc déposée après qu’un accusé est reconnu coupable, mais avant que la peine soit déterminée.

Le rapport fait un examen exhaustif du parcours de l’accusé, avec une insistance sur les « réalités propres » aux personnes racisées, à la « discrimination systémique » qu’elles ont vécue et aux défis spécifiques auxquels elles sont plus exposées (plus bas taux de diplomation, plus grande proportion de familles monoparentales et de père absent, plus grand risque de vivre dans des quartiers défavorisés et criminalisés, etc.).

On considère que ces facteurs, plus présents chez les Noirs, mènent plus facilement à la criminalité.

Comme l’explique Me Valérie Black St-Laurent, avocate et directrice des opérations chez Jurigo, « l’objectif d’une EIOEC, c’est vraiment d’informer la Cour pour contextualiser le parcours de la personne qui se trouve devant elle et pour qu’elle puisse rendre une peine qui est juste » et individualisée, comme le prévoit le Code criminel.

« C’est individualisé, mais il reste que les statistiques montrent que tout le groupe des personnes noires est victime de discrimination », renchérit Karine Millaire, professeure adjointe à la faculté de droit de l’Université de Montréal.

« Il faut tenir compte du fait qu’il y a une surincarcération des personnes noires qui est issue du fait que notre système est aussi discriminatoire », dit-elle….

Source: Décision rendue fin juillet | Une première peine adaptée aux criminels racisés au Québec

In a recent decision delivered at the end of July at the Longueuil courthouse, Judge Magali Lepage sentenced the accused Frank Paris to 24 months in prison in a cannabis and hashish trafficking case. The latter had already pleaded guilty. So far, nothing unusual.

However, to determine her sentence, the judge considered the case law, an analysis of the evidence, a balance of aggravating and mitigating factors… but also an assessment of the impact of ethnic or cultural origin (EIOEC), a particular analysis that looks at the personal journey of a criminal through the magnifying glass of the systemic barriers he was able to face.

After reading the evaluation, the judge decided to accept the suggestion of the defense, almost a year shorter than that of the prosecution.

This is a first in Quebec. No Quebec judge had considered an EIOEC in determining a sentence until July 28. The decision is therefore likely to become jurisprudence in the Quebec context. Such procedures have existed since 2014, elsewhere in Canada.

What is an EIOEC?

An EIOEC is a face-to-face expert report that is used to determine the sentence of a racialized person – but is mainly used for black people. It is therefore filed after an accused is found guilty, but before the sentence is determined.

The report makes an exhaustive examination of the accused’s career, with an emphasis on the “realities specific” of racialized people, the “systemic discrimination” they have experienced and the specific challenges to which they are more exposed (lower graduation rates, greater proportion of single-parent families and absent fathers, higher risk of living in disadvantaged and criminalized neighborhoods, etc.).

These factors, more present among blacks, are considered to lead more easily to crime.

As explained by Valérie Black St-Laurent, lawyer and director of operations at Jurigo, “the objective of an EIOEC is really to inform the Court to contextualize the journey of the person who is in front of it and so that he can render a sentence that is fair” and individualized, as provided for by the Criminal Code.

“It’s individualized, but the statistics still show that the entire group of black people is a victim of discrimination,” adds Karine Millaire, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Montreal.

“We must take into account the fact that there is an over-imprisonment of black people that results from the fact that our system is also discriminatory,” she says….

Patrick Lagacé’s biting critique of the EIOEC reasoning the judgement relied on:

La suite du paragraphe est hallucinante de déresponsabilisation : « Bien que M. Paris ait cru qu’il servait sa communauté d’une façon positive en donnant une tribune aux artistes et l’accès à l’internet, il y vendait aussi des substances illicites. En rétrospective, M. Paris croit qu’il aurait dû cesser de vendre de la cocaïne à cette époque… »

Et c’est comme ça sur 44 pages, cette « évaluation de l’incidence de l’origine ethnique et culturelle », j’en passe et des meilleures : tout est la faute de la société, rien n’a jamais été, rien n’est et ne sera jamais la faute de Frank Paris.

S’il commet des crimes, si la récidive lui tombe dessus à répétition, c’est parce qu’il est noir dans une société anti-black. Et handicapé, mais ça me prendrait une autre chronique pour vous expliquer cette intersectionnalité fascinante qui pousse aussi M. Paris à la criminalité.

Bref, je ne sais pas si les « évaluations de l’incidence de l’origine ethnique et culturelle » nées en Nouvelle-Écosse sont toujours de la bullshit, mais celle de M. Frank Paris, la première utilisée par une juge au Québec, m’apparaît comme ça et juste ça : de la bullshitpur jus.

Source: Un rapport vaguement ésotérique

The rest of the paragraph is hallucinating with deresponsibility: “Although Mr. Paris believed that he served his community in a positive way by giving a forum to artists and access to the Internet, he also sold illicit substances there. In retrospect, Mr. Paris believes that he should have stopped selling cocaine at that time…”
And that’s how it is on 44 pages, this “assessment of the impact of ethnic and cultural origin”, I pass and the best: everything is the fault of society, nothing has ever been, nothing is and will never be the fault of Frank Paris.
If he commits crimes, if recidivism falls on him repeatedly, it is because he is black in an anti-black society. And disabled, but it would take me another column to explain this fascinating intersectionality that also pushes Mr. Paris to crime.
In short, I don’t know if the “evaluations of the incidence of ethnic and cultural origin” born in Nova Scotia are still bullshit, but that of Mr. Frank Paris, the first used by a judge in Quebec, appears to me like this and just that: bullshitpur jus.



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Les faux représentants en immigration, un véritable fléau

2025/08/07 Leave a comment

Good series in Le Devoir on immigration consultants and fraud:

…Consultants « fantômes », faux avocats, usurpateurs d’identité de vrais consultants : de plus en plus de faux représentants font payer des services d’immigration sans être autorisés à les dispenser, selon les informations compilées par Le Devoir.

Au Québec et dans le reste du Canada, il n’est pas obligatoire d’avoir recours à ce genre d’intermédiaire pour déposer une demande en immigration, quelle qu’elle soit. Mais à partir du moment où quelqu’un facture ce genre de services, il doit en revanche être impérativement autorisé : avocat membre du Barreau du Québec, consultant membre du Collège des consultants en immigration et en citoyenneté (CCIC) ou encore notaire à la Chambre des notaires du Québec.

Le problème est difficile à appréhender dans son ensemble, notamment parce que plusieurs entités opèrent de l’étranger et en dehors de la loi. Mais s’il n’y a qu’une pointe de l’iceberg à déceler, elle est déjà immense : dans la dernière année, le CCIC a fait fermer plus de 5000 pages Web et de médias sociaux qui faisaient la promotion de praticiens non autorisés.

Sur le terrain

Dans un contexte où les restrictions en immigration rendent de plus en plus difficile le renouvellement des permis de travail, d’études ou encore l’accès à la résidence permanente, « les faux représentants sont devenus un vrai fléau », dit Louis-Philippe Jannard, coordonnateur du volet protection de la Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes.

« C’est un problème endémique dans certains quartiers », abonde aussi Camille Bonenfant, organisatrice communautaire à la Clinique pour la justice migrante. Lorsque des membres de son équipe se déplacent pour donner des ateliers d’information, c’est presque « systématique » : les personnes rencontrées « s’approchent et nous montrent une carte d’affaires d’une personne qui n’est enregistrée nulle part ».

« C’est sûr qu’il y a une augmentation », tranche aussi Dory Jade, qui soulève le problème depuis 20 ans. Il est directeur général de l’Association canadienne des consultants professionnels en immigration et a eu connaissance des plus grandes comme des plus petites fraudes : « Il y a des cas qui ont payé des centaines de milliers de dollars à des individus qui leur ont fait miroiter qu’ils pouvaient les emmener au Canada », raconte-t-il.

Ou encore des gens qui ont vendu toutes leurs possessions pour obtenir des papiers… qui ne sont jamais arrivés, poursuit M. Jade….

Source: Les faux représentants en immigration, un véritable fléau

Other articles in the series: Des usurpateurs aux faux avocats : la jungle des consultants en immigration, Des solutions pour contrer les consultants fantômes en immigration, Quand le rêve canadien vire au cauchemar | Parcours

… “Ghost” consultants, false lawyers, identity thieves of real consultants: more and more false representatives are charging immigration services without being authorized to dispense them, according to information compiled by Le Devoir.

In Quebec and the rest of Canada, it is not mandatory to use this kind of intermediary to file an immigration application, whatever it may be. But from the moment someone charges for this type of service, he must be authorized: a lawyer member of the Barreau du Québec, a consultant member of the Collège des consultants en immigration et en citoyenneté (CCIC) or a notary at the Chambre des notaires du Québec.

The problem is difficult to understand as a whole, in particular because several entities operate from abroad and outside the law. But if there is only one tip of the iceberg to detect, it is already huge: in the last year, the CCIC has closed more than 5,000 web and social media pages that promoted unauthorized practitioners.

In the field

In a context where immigration restrictions are making it increasingly difficult to renew work permits, study permits or access to permanent residence, “false representatives have become a real scourge,” says Louis-Philippe Jannard, coordinator of the protection component of the Consultation Table for organizations serving refugees and immigrants.

“It’s an endemic problem in some neighborhoods,” says Camille Bonenfant, community organizer at the Clinic for Migrant Justice. When members of his team travel to give information workshops, it is almost “systematic”: the people met “approach and show us a business card of a person who is not registered anywhere”.

“It is certain that there is an increase,” says Dory Jade, who has been raising the problem for 20 years. He is Director General of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants and has learned of the biggest and smallest frauds: “There are cases that have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to individuals who have made them think they could take them to Canada,” he says.

Or people who sold all their possessions to get papers… who never arrived, continues Mr. Jade….

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Wright: The Bogus Idea That Will Not Die

2025/08/06 Leave a comment

Indeed:

…What we are describing is essentially a Ponzi scheme. All Ponzi schemes ultimately collapse when it becomes impossible to recruit enough new “investors” to keep the scheme going. The longer it goes on, the bigger the eventual collapse. You can’t fix a Ponzi scheme by keeping it going.

And yet, that is essentially what the proponents of greater population growth are offering as the solution – their advice is to keep the Ponzi scheme going.

In the next few posts, we will look at this in a little more detail – how the terms of the senior promise arose, what we can do to make it sustainable going forward, and the intergenerational consequences if we instead keep the Ponzi scheme going.

Source: The Bogus Idea That Will Not Die

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Worswick: Where’s this brain gain of elite U.S. professors we keep talking about?

2025/08/06 Leave a comment

Arguing for a more selective approach to international student recruitment while allowing numbers to rise again (most of the abuse happened at the college and satellite campus levels):

…Taken together, this is hardly an environment where we would expect professors from elite U.S. universities to go when they can move to almost anywhere in the world. The widely cited QS ranking places Harvard University 5th in the world, while nearby MIT ranks 1st. University of Oxford is ranked 4th and University of Melbourne is ranked 19th, while the highest-ranked Canadian universities are McGill at 27th and University of Toronto at 29th. It is unlikely that the extreme budget stresses these Canadian universities now face have yet to fully affect their global reputations, and so their rankings may not stay this high.

Universities are important parts of modern economies. In the case of Ontario, a 2021 Conference Board of Canada report found that universities’ annual activities and human capital development is equal in value to 11.7 per cent of the province’s GDP. Elite professors can raise the prestige of their institution and help attract international students, strengthening the economy through their tuition and expenditures. To gain more of these benefits, both the federal and provincial governments should adapt policies to help Canadian universities attract top academics from the around the world.

Provincial governments are clearly struggling to provide adequate funding for both health care and education, and health care is typically ranked by Canadians as the greater priority. In this context, provinces should focus public resources on reducing health care shortages and allow universities to operate more independently, setting tuition as appropriate to support their academic programs.

The Canada Research Chair program needs to be revamped. The annual transfer from the federal government to the university for a given category of chair has not changed since 2000, meaning that, in real terms, each chair has fallen in value by roughly 40 per cent and will continue to fall in real terms with future inflation. The Canada Excellence Research Chairs, introduced in 2008, are more generous, but the program needs to be expanded if it is going to attract many elite faculty members from the U.S. 

Finally, as I have argued before, international student numbers at universities should be allowed to rise again given the high tuition fees they raise and the fact that these students typically go on to be strong candidates as economic immigrants. This would generate higher revenue, allowing universities to make more competitive salary offers to top international candidates.

Source: Where’s this brain gain of elite U.S. professors we keep talking about?

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Le Canada est-il vraiment un sanctuaire pour les immigrants LGBTQ+?

2025/08/06 Leave a comment

Expectations of paradise in general are unrealistic:

..Le Canada, un paradis queer ?

C’est d’ailleurs le genre de partenariat qui renforce encore davantage l’image du Canada comme lieu sûr pour les communautés LGBTQ+. Une réputation bel et bien basée sur des faits, tranche Ahmed Hamila, professeur de sociologie à l’Université de Montréal. Ce qui ne veut pas dire qu’il ne faut pas la nuancer, s’empresse-t-il d’ajouter.

À leur arrivée, plusieurs de ces demandeurs d’asile vivent une « lune de miel » — d’une durée d’environ cinq ans, selon la plus récente collecte de données de M. Hamila. « Après, les personnes commencent à déconstruire cette image paradisiaque. Parce que, en plus du fait qu’elles doivent faire face à des enjeux d’homophobie ou de transphobie, s’ajoutent des enjeux de racisme et de xénophobie — des problèmes qu’elles ne connaissaient pas dans leur pays parce qu’elles faisaient partie de la majorité. »

Même au Canada, un pays où les droits LGBTQ+ font partie des « valeurs intrinsèques », poursuit le spécialiste, « il reste que, dans le traitement des demandes d’asile et dans l’accès aux soins et aux services sociaux, il y a encore de grands défis pour les personnes réfugiées, migrantes et racisées ». Celui qui est également codirecteur de la Clinique Mauve donne l’exemple des papiers d’immigration, qui permettent difficilement le changement de genre ou le choix du marqueur « X ».

« La situation est peut-être meilleure qu’ailleurs, mais ces personnes vivent de la discrimination en milieu de travail et dans le logement. Et [elles se heurtent à] énormément de barrières pour avoir accès [au statut de réfugié] ou au système de justice », note aussi de son côté M. Otaegi Alcaide.

Si l’image du Canada continue à être celle d’un « paradis queer », c’est que le pays a quand même fait figure de pionnier en la matière, poursuit M. Hamila. En 1993, la Cour suprême a reconnu dans l’arrêt Ward que l’orientation sexuelle pouvait être un motif d’asile au pays. Mais c’est « presque par hasard », au détour d’exemples donnés de « l’appartenance à un groupe social » et non pas à la suite d’une demande précise pour cette raison, souligne-t-il.

Ce n’est que près de 10 ans plus tard, en 2002, que le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés a reconnu à son tour ce motif pour octroyer le statut protégé de réfugié….

Source: Le Canada est-il vraiment un sanctuaire pour les immigrants LGBTQ+?

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Air Canada says she was being ‘loud, demanding and unruly.’ She says she was being stereotyped. Here’s what the human rights tribunal heard

2025/08/06 2 Comments

Will be interesting to see how the Tribunal rules. Incident dates from 2018 and don’t know whether the delay is normal for the Tribunal. As a business class passenger, she would have access to shorter check-in and boarding lines. As an DEI academic and activist, Francis would likely be more aware and sensitive to perceived discrimination and stereotypes:

It’s not an uncommon scene at any busy airport: A passenger needs help and approaches an airline agent who may come across as rude.

But what happened to a Jamaican Canadian at Vancouver International Airport on March 1, 2018 — as described last week over a five-day hearing at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal — has highlighted the stark contrast in how a Black woman and airline staff viewed their encounter seven years ago.

The case of alleged discrimination for “Flying while Black” will test how far the Canadian Human Rights Act can go in awarding damages to air travellers for discrimination. Claims against carriers are governed by the Montreal Convention, an international pact that’s a standard liability regime for death and injury, damage or loss of baggage and flight delay only.

Business-class passenger June Francis had had her knees replaced six months before a trip to Toronto. She approached an Air Canada check-in agent for help amid an exceptionally long lineup, the tribunal heard.

She testified that the agent cut her off before she could request an accommodation, yelled at her and told her to “get in line.” Unsuccessful in getting the agent’s name or identification number, she took photos of the agent with her cellphone for identification so she could complain to Air Canada.

Francis, who is five-foot-10, was described as “loud,” “demanding” and “unruly,” the tribunal heard from Air Canada. A supervisor and security guard were dispatched and demanded that Francis delete the photos, or else she would be refused boarding.

Francis testified that the supervisor said to her, “I can see why you are a problem. You do not take directions. I can see why you were treated that way.” 

“It was a very demeaning comment,” Francis said. “It suggested that I needed directions from people to know how to behave.”

The now 70-year-old woman — a Simon Fraser University business professor and a King Charles III Coronation Medal recipient for her anti-racism work — said she felt afraid when she saw the airport security guard.

“I was shaken,” she testified. “I had done nothing wrong. I am a Black woman … I know what has happened from my community when law enforcement arrives.”

On the witness stand, the agent, later identified as Betty Liao, described Francis as rude and aggressive, but denied yelling at her to get in line or that the complainant ever mentioned her physical needs. She also testified she did not remember if Francis asked for her name or identification number to file a complaint, or if she refused. 

Liao did remember telling Francis to stop taking photos of her, and told the tribunal she felt unsafe. “This is too intimidating,” testified Liao, who is five feet tall. “And I have no right to say no?”

In laying out the complaint at the hearing, Francis’s lawyer Sujit Choudhry said this is the first case of flying while Black to reach a full hearing before the tribunal.

“Professor Francis, a grandmother, (then) 62-year-old, recovering from a knee surgery, posed no threat,” he told the tribunal….

Source: Air Canada says she was being ‘loud, demanding and unruly.’ She says she was being stereotyped. Here’s what the human rights tribunal heard



Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with , , ,

Turley-Ewart: Canada’s risk-averse businesses are slouching toward AI

2025/08/05 2 Comments

Arguably, the hardest issue to address:

…Yet, the slow adoption of AI raises questions about Canadian businesses. What are they doing to invest in their own success? The inability of so many to effectively manage AI integration that will enable them to help themselves and improve productivity, economic growth and GDP per capita points to a culture of complacency.

Canada’s aging digital infrastructure is a monument to that complacency. “Canada trails every other G7 nation in AI computing infrastructure, possessing only one-eighth to one-tenth of the available compute performance per capita compared to countries like the U.S.,” according to RBC. AI is the high-speed train that needs high speed tracks and engines. Canadian AI is running on 1960s era rails built for plodding diesel engines.

What makes business AI-adoption rates so puzzling, as Minister Solomon hinted at in a recent interview, is that Canada is known for its “pioneering frontier AI research.” It is home to the “Godfather of AI,” and Nobel Laureate in Physics, University of Toronto’s Geoffrey Hinton. The country also has AI research organizations that do world-leading work: The Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, the Vector Institute in Toronto, as well as the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute.

That Canada is blessed with such rich AI research and innovation, and yet 88 per cent of our businesses have not even started to integrate AI into their operating models, speaks to a troubling lack of curiosity.

We face a future where an inquisitive person writes a prompt in their AI tool of choice asking: Why didn’t Canadian businesses adopt AI sooner and prosper? 

If we don’t change course the answer will be: “Risk aversion.” Most Canadian businesses lacked the courage to innovate.

Source: Canada’s risk-averse businesses are slouching toward AI

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As premiers push for more immigration power, experts call for a fact-based debate

2025/08/05 Leave a comment

Please, evidence-based policy, not the reverse…:

Some premiers say they want to have more local control over the immigration system — but experts say what the system really needs is a national conversation on immigration reform that shores up public support.

“Most of the existing policies have been formulated on the fly without any evidence or serious impact evaluations of what the various classes of immigrants are, how they’re performing economically and otherwise,” said Michael Trebilcock, a retired academic and co-author of two books on immigration policy.

“So it’s basically research-free.”

As the premiers and territorial leaders were wrapping up their three-day meeting in Huntsville, Ont., late last month, they called for an increase to economic immigration levels to fill local labour gaps and said they would use their constitutional powers to seize more control over immigration and issue work permits.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford later walked back his vow to issue work permits to asylum seekers.

“Do I want the whole immigration system on the shoulder of the province? No. Would I like to be treated the same way as Quebec? Yes, and so would every other province and territory,” Ford said last Monday.

Quebec has its own distinct immigration system through an agreement with the federal government. The province is able to choose who can immigrate to Quebec based on its own criteria, with French language skills being a significant factor.

David Piccini, Ontario’s immigration minister, said last Monday that the province also wants to see more financial support from Ottawa to help pay for social services strained by a high number of asylum seekers landing in Ontario.

Ninette Kelley, a former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees official and a former member of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, said that provincial control over immigration has grown significantly over the last two decades.

“They know what their provinces need today, and they want to make sure they get the labour in that is required to meet those demands,” she said.

“But at the same time, there’s been absolutely no evaluation that I can see of how those programs are implemented or what effect they’re having.”

Trebilcock said the premiers’ concerns need to be taken seriously because increased immigration boosts demand for health care and other provincial services.

He said that it’s “disturbing” to see Canadians’ support for immigration decline in multiple public opinion polls. He said current immigration policies lack broad support and he believes a comprehensive, public review is needed to rebuild that support through evidence-based policies.

“What we see at present is often piecemeal, on-the-fly changes in reaction to particular concerns that have surfaced in the media … international students, temporary foreign workers,” he said.

Kelley said that, instead of a multi-year exercise like a national inquiry, a top-to-bottom immigration system review could be conducted quickly with “the right people at the table.”

Saskatchewan Immigration Minister Jim Reiter told The Canadian Press that he and the other subnational immigration ministers have told Ottawa they want to be seen more as partners in immigration, not stakeholders.

“We need more influence in the decision-making of this because so much of the economic stream needs to be targeted depending on the specific needs of each province,” Reiter said.

The federal government last year slashed the number of slots in the Provincial Nominee Program from 110,000 to 55,000 as part of broader efforts to rein in immigration.

The program allows provinces and territories to nominate individuals for permanent residence based on their skills and ability to contribute to the economy. Each province and territory has its own set of program streams targeting different types of immigrants based on factors like skills or business experience.

Reiter said provincial immigration ministers want to see the Provincial Nominee Program return to its previous levels.

He said that while he understands the need to reduce the number of temporary visas, that shouldn’t come at the expense of economic immigrants.

“We’ve had to restrict (the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program) down to three streams now to a large degree because we just don’t have enough spots anymore,” Reiter said.

Reiter said that of the 3,600 spots Saskatchewan has for its immigrant nominee program, three-quarters have to go to temporary workers, so the province is prioritizing nominees who work in health care and skilled trades.

“We’ve got the largest potash mine in the world being built … just outside of Saskatoon and that company, BHP, every time we meet with them they raise the issue that skilled trades are an issue. So this is having a detrimental effect on economic growth,” he said.

Trebilcock said that if provinces are focused on using immigration to strengthen their local labour markets, steps could be taken to make it easier to recognize immigrants’ foreign credentials in fields like law and medicine.

With federal immigration decisions having provincial consequences, Kelley said, running an effective immigration system requires close collaboration between all levels of government.

“So that speaks to the need for really tight co-operation between the federal government and the provincial government and municipalities, both in the setting of levels and in the housing and medical policies that are currently in place so that we can accommodate those who we’re letting in,” she said.

Source: As premiers push for more immigration power, experts call for a fact-based debate

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Idées | Les défis administratifs et linguistiques de la francisation

2025/08/05 Leave a comment

Interesting discussion on purity vs pragmatism:

…Heureusement, on constate aussi des améliorations en matière de francisation. Un élément auquel on ne pense pas spontanément, mais qui est important, est le choix des manuels de francisation. Auparavant, les manuels s’alignaient sur le français européen, voire parisien. On employait des mots caractéristiques du français européen sans toujours donner leur équivalent en Amérique (comme portable pour cellulaire ou football pour soccer). Aujourd’hui, les manuels utilisés au Québec sont plus adaptés au contexte québécois. C’est notamment le cas des manuels « Par ici », qui utilisent par exemple arachide plutôt que cacahuète et sac à dos plutôt que cartable. Ce n’est pas banal : les apprenants reconnaîtront ainsi les mots du quotidien.

Les manuels de français langue seconde employés dans le Canada anglais ne semblent pas tous avoir mené la même réflexion sur la variation de la langue. Le fait que la langue française varie selon l’endroit où elle est parlée dans la francophonie se comprend assez aisément. Cependant, dans certains manuels, on sent une confusion entre, d’une part, cette variation dans l’espace et, d’autre part, la variation selon la situation de communication ou le registre. Il peut être tout à fait pertinent d’expliciter certaines expressions familières très courantes, comme c’est plate et avoir de la misère, comme le fait « Par ici », tout en précisant qu’elles appartiennent au registre familier. (C’est ainsi que mon ami turc Mehmet me demandait ce que signifiait l’expression ammanné. J’ai dû le faire répéter quelques fois pour comprendre qu’il s’agissait de à un moment donné…) L’information sur les registres est cruciale : le nouvel arrivant doit savoir qu’il peut dire salut et blonde à un ami, mais qu’il est préférable de dire bonjour et conjointe lors d’un entretien d’embauche. Mais certains manuels véhiculent une vision caricaturale du français québécois, comme si ses particularités se résumaient à des mots très familiers. Un manuel dresse une liste des « expressions idiomatiques » du Québec qui ne regroupe en fait que des usages très familiers : char, loader ses cartes de crédit, veut veut pas… Aucune information sur le fait que le français québécois possède aussi des particularismes neutres, comme traversier, présentement ou aréna.

Par ailleurs, on sent une confusion entre le rôle de la francisation et une certaine vision puriste de la langue. L’objectif est de faire du français la langue commune et de permettre aux nouveaux arrivants de s’intégrer à la société et au marché du travail. Est-il vraiment nécessaire d’enseigner dès les premiers mois de francisation que  caméra est un anglicisme critiqué à remplacer par appareil photo et qu’on doit employer scolaire plutôt qu’académique ? On peut aussi contester certains choix : pourquoi employer croustilles plutôt que chips, que le nouvel arrivant entendra indéniablement plus souvent ?

Poussé à l’extrême, le purisme peut avoir des conséquences négatives sur le français, même s’il part d’un attachement profond envers la langue. La sociolinguiste Françoise Gadet définit le purisme comme « une sacralisation de la norme, éventuellement jusque dans le respect des formes les moins rationnelles ». Or, certaines règles particulièrement illogiques et incohérentes de l’orthographe française sont extrêmement difficiles à acquérir, même pour des francophones de langue maternelle. Mettons-nous à la place du nouvel arrivant qui apprend sa deuxième, voire sa troisième langue, qui plus est à l’âge adulte.

« Madame, j’ai appris à parler français, je me débrouille bien, mais je n’arrive pas à réussir le test écrit de français pour accéder à l’université. Je déménage en Ontario. »

C’est le genre de confidences que partagent avec moi à l’occasion des étudiants en francisation. On peut se demander en quoi conserver les règles d’accord du participe passé ou du pluriel de « rose incarnat » et de « sapin vert-de-gris » aident à la promotion du français.

Mireille Elchacar L’autrice est lexicologue et professeure à l’Université TELUQ. Elle a publié Délier la langue. Pour un nouveau discours sur le français au Québec.

Source: Idées | Les défis administratifs et linguistiques de la francisation

… Fortunately, there are also improvements in francization. One element that we do not think of spontaneously, but which is important, is the choice of francization manuals. Previously, textbooks were aligned with European French, even Parisian. Characteristic words of European French were used without always giving their equivalent in America (such as mobile phone for cell phone or football for soccer). Today, the textbooks used in Quebec are more adapted to the Quebec context. This is particularly the case with the “Par ici” manuals, which use, for example, peanut instead of peanut and backpack rather than schoolbag. It is not trivial: learners will recognize the words of everyday life.

The French as a second language textbooks used in English Canada do not all seem to have conducted the same reflection on the variation of the language. The fact that the French language varies according to where it is spoken in the Francophonie is quite easy to understand. However, in some manuals, there is a confusion between, on the one hand, this variation in space and, on the other hand, the variation according to the communication situation or the register. It can be quite relevant to explain certain very common colloquial expressions, such as it’s flat and have misery, such as “Here”, while specifying that they belong to the colloquial register. (This is how my Turkish friend Mehmet asked me what the expression ammanné meant. I had to repeat it a few times to understand that it was at some point…) The information on the registers is crucial: the newcomer must know that he can say hello and blonde to a friend, but that it is better to say hello and wife during a job interview. But some manuals convey a caricatured vision of Quebec French, as if its peculiarities were summarized in very familiar words. A manual draws up a list of Quebec’s “idiomatic expressions” that in fact only includes very familiar uses: tank, load your credit cards, wants doesn’t want… No information on the fact that Quebec French also has neutral particularisms, such as ferry, currently or arena.

Moreover, there is a confusion between the role of francization and a certain puristic vision of the language. The objective is to make French the common language and to allow newcomers to integrate into society and the labor market. Is it really necessary to teach from the first months of francization that camera is a criticized anglicism to be replaced by camera and that we must use school rather than academic? We can also challenge certain choices: why use chips instead of chips, which the newcomer will undeniably hear more often?

Pushed to the extreme, purism can have negative consequences on French, even if it starts from a deep attachment to the language. Sociolinguist Françoise Gadet defines purism as “a sacralization of the norm, possibly even in respect of the least rational forms”. However, some particularly illogical and incoherent rules of French spelling are extremely difficult to acquire, even for French speakers whose mother tongue. Let’s put ourselves in the place of the newcomer who learns his second, or even his third language, moreover in adulthood.

“Madam, I learned to speak French, I’m doing well, but I can’t pass the written French test to get to university. I’m moving to Ontario. ”

This is the kind of confidences that Frenchization students share with me. One may wonder how preserving the rules of agreement of the past participle or plural of “pink incarnat” and “fir green-of-gris” help to promote French.

Mireille Elchacar The author is a lexicologist and professor at TELUQ University. She published Délier la langue. For a new discourse on French in Quebec.

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