French: ‘Superman’ Is MAGA Kryptonite

2025/07/18 Leave a comment

Good post:

…Think for a moment of the immigrant experience. If you’re a child, you come without your consent. You find yourself in a place that you’ve never known. Even if you’re an adult, and you want to make America your home, you start out in a state of isolation and vulnerability.

Is it any wonder that new immigrants often create or seek out ethnic enclaves? From the Irish and Italian quarters of cities in the 19th century to the barrios of the 20th and 21st centuries, immigrants can ease into their new life by holding onto remnants of the old.

We look at immigrants and often demand that they assimilate. Be like us, we say. Conform to our culture. And that’s usually an easy ask — after all, adult immigrants want to be here. They want to participate in American life. For children, assimilation tends to happen quickly. Immigrant children who grow up in America quickly become more American than they are Mexican or Nigerian or Polish.

Assimilation doesn’t mean abandonment. There are millions of patriotic Americans who are also proud of their national heritages. When the waters of the Chicago River turn green on St. Patrick’s Day, we celebrate with Irish Americans. Should Mexican Americans experience any less joy on Cinco de Mayo?

When I served in Iraq, I served with immigrant soldiers who expressed pride in their homelands but fought in one uniform under one flag, and no one in our squadron ever questioned where their ultimate loyalties lay.

But if we ask immigrants to assimilate, then our nation has its own obligation. We must adopt them. If we want immigrants to love us, then it is our sacred obligation to love them back. Nations can’t love immigrants like adoptive parents love their children, but there is a parallel — a nation can tell a person, “You are one of us.”

That doesn’t mean that we open our borders to anyone who wants to come. Of course we should regulate the flow of immigrants into our country. Too many people arriving too quickly can overwhelm social services, strain local economies and create the conditions for rivalry and conflict that destabilize our politics.

But our default posture should be one of open arms. We should take immense pride that people want to come here. And we should welcome as many as we can reasonably absorb. This is our national heritage, marred though it is by sometimes-long periods of backsliding….

Source: ‘Superman’ Is MAGA Kryptonite

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Opinion | Canada’s immigration system, once admired for its fairness and balance, has drifted into crisis

2025/07/18 Leave a comment

Hard hitting critique, not unjustified:

…Worse still, Ottawa’s enforcement mechanisms have faltered. The federal government acknowledged that Canada may now have up to 500,000 undocumented residents. Tens of thousands of people overstay visas each year without consequence. A system that overlooks such lapses is not generous — it is negligent. It jeopardizes the very trust on which public support for immigration depends.

Support for immigration still runs deep in Canada, but it’s not without limits. Canadians value immigration when it’s fair, focused and transparent. But when the system starts to look porous or easily gamed, confidence frays. And everyone pays the price: the immigrant who played by the rules, the patient waiting for a family doctor, the student without housing or work, and the community stretched thin.

Canada needs immigrants. We need health care workers in rural hospitals, care aides in long-term care homes, and early childhood educators across the country. But meeting those needs doesn’t require a floodgate — it needs a funnel. One that matches admissions to housing, health care capacity, and real labour demand.

Prime Minister Carney now holds the mandate — and the moment — to restore credibility to Canada’s immigration system. That means criminal vetting must be immediate and enforceable. Study permits must be tied to accredited programs with proven pathways to employment. Intake levels must be scaled in line with infrastructure and economic absorption capacity. And Ottawa must publish clear, transparent audits showing how homes, hospital beds, and transit systems will match future growth.

Fixing immigration is not a peripheral policy. It is the first test of whether the new government is prepared to govern for results rather than optics. The promise of immigration lies not in how many arrive, but in how many thrive. It lies in our ability to match aspiration with capacity, and compassion with competence.

Because if we can admit 17,000 people with criminal convictions, yet leave skilled, law-abiding applicants in limbo — and push even the most qualified newcomers into survival jobs — then something is deeply broken. And if we don’t fix the system now, we risk losing not just public trust, but the very foundation of a nation built on rules, trust, and earned opportunity.

Dr. Debakanta Jena is a first-generation immigrant, Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary.

Source: Opinion | Canada’s immigration system, once admired for its fairness and balance, has drifted into crisis

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Hall | In a world of symbolic gestures, we challenged Canada to be better. Here’s how we did

2025/07/18 Leave a comment

Of note:

Five years ago, the world changed — and so did we.

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and a global reckoning on racial injustice, we chose to act. In July 2020, more than 500 organizations across Canada joined us to say enough is enough: enough of looking the other way, and enough of a system that too often overlooks or sidelines Black Canadians while claiming to support progress.

The leaders of these organizations signed on to the BlackNorth Initiative Pledge committing to dismantle anti-Black racism in their organizations and beyond. They include CEOs, board chairs, and senior executives from Canada’s largest banks, law firms, corporations, universities, government agencies and non-profit institutions.

As we mark the five-year anniversary of the BlackNorth Initiative, we say with clarity and conviction: we have made change happen. It was not symbolic. It was structural.

Executives have been hired. Boards have diversified. Procurement systems have been restructured. Black youth are breaking into sectors that once kept them out. Equity has moved from the margins of corporate decks to the core of strategic operations. We have redefined what leadership looks like in Canada and who gets to be seen as a leader.

The numbers bear this out. Notably, among TSX-listed companies that committed to the BlackNorth Initiative’s voluntary pledge, Black board representation reached 3.3 per cent, double that of non-BNI companies at 1.6 per cent. The proportion of Black executives also rose from 1.0 per cent in 2020 to 1.5 per cent in 2022, aligning with the 1.5 per cent representation seen among BNI signatories.

These findings underscore the power of voluntary commitments to drive real, systemic change and to foster greater inclusion at the highest levels of leadership.

And the results go beyond numbers. Companies that signed the pledge are speaking up. Leaders across sectors have testified that committing to the Pledge has strengthened their talent pipelines, innovation capacity, and overall performance.

This is the ripple effect of equity done right. Diverse companies are better companies.

And yet, even now, the urgency has not faded.

Wes Hall is the founder and chairman of the BlackNorth Initiative and founder & CEO of Kingsdale Advisors & Executive Chairman & Founder of WeShall Investments. Dahabo Ahmed Omer is the CEO of the BlackNorth Initiative.

Source: Opinion | In a world of symbolic gestures, we challenged Canada to be better. Here’s how we did

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Idées | Critiquer l’Occident, oui, le liquider, non

2025/07/17 Leave a comment

Good reminder:

Pendant que la Chine emprisonne, que l’Iran torture et que la Russie assassine, certains intellectuels occidentaux continuent de tourner leur rage contre leur propre camp. À force de diaboliser la démocratie libérale au nom d’un anticolonialisme devenu pavlovien, on oublie une vérité simple : ici, on peut encore parler librement. Ailleurs, on se tait… ou on disparaît.

En ne voyant que nos fautes, on oublie que la démocratie libérale, malgré ses limites, reste le dernier cadre réformable. Elle n’est pas parfaite, mais elle demeure le seul système qui accepte d’être interrogé depuis l’intérieur, qui garantit aux citoyens le droit de contester sans peur et qui rend possible sa propre remise en cause.

« Hypocrisie d’un double discours », entend-on souvent comme propos délégitimant l’Occident. Pourtant, de nombreuses civilisations ont asservi ou dominé d’autres peuples. L’histoire humaine est saturée de conquêtes, de systèmes d’exploitation, de hiérarchies imposées. Les dynasties chinoises, les empires arabes, les royaumes africains ou européens ont tous pratiqué la violence. L’Occident n’a donc pas le monopole de la brutalité. Ce qui le distingue, ce n’est pas l’absence d’ignominie, mais la capacité à la reconnaître et à la contester. Si cette tradition d’autocritique s’effondre, elle laisse place à la complaisance, au cynisme, ou à l’indifférence face aux véritables luttes pour la liberté ailleurs dans le monde.

Les révolutions libérales des XVIIᵉ et XVIIIᵉ siècles en Angleterre, aux États-Unis et en France ont forgé un ordre inédit : séparation des pouvoirs, responsabilité des gouvernants, droits individuels, souveraineté populaire. Ces principes, imparfaits dans leur application, ont néanmoins produit des institutions capables de limiter les abus, d’encadrer l’arbitraire, de faire naître des contre-pouvoirs. C’est ici, plus qu’ailleurs, que l’esclavage a été aboli, que les femmes et les minorités ont conquis des droits, que la presse et les libertés académiques ont pu se déployer. Ces avancées ne sont pas abstraites : elles ont été arrachées de haute lutte. Et lorsque ces institutions sont contournées, comme ce fut récemment le cas aux États-Unis ou en Pologne, c’est l’ensemble du pacte démocratique qui vacille.

La société civile et les ONG jouent un rôle crucial. Associations, syndicats, mouvements citoyens et lanceurs d’alerte participent activement à la remise en question des dérives. Cette vitalité contraste avec la répression systématique qui frappe ces acteurs dans la plupart des régimes autoritaires.

Aujourd’hui, ce cadre est fragilisé. À droite, on rêve d’un ordre restauré, où l’autorité l’emporterait sur le débat. À gauche, certains milieux militants dénoncent la démocratie libérale comme une imposture. La critique est nécessaire, mais elle devient toxique lorsqu’elle ne vise que l’Occident, en épargnant les pires régimes actuels. La Chine, l’Iran ou la Russie sont parfois minimisés, voire réhabilités, au nom d’un anti-impérialisme devenu pavlovien. Le refus de nommer certaines oppressions est déjà une forme de complicité.

Ce phénomène n’est pas nouveau. L’histoire intellectuelle du XXe siècle en porte les traces : Foucault saluant la révolution iranienne de 1979, Sartre fermant les yeux sur les goulags, Aragon justifiant les crimes du stalinisme au nom de la fidélité au Parti. Ceux qui ont résisté à ces aveuglements — Camus, Aron, Koestler — ont souvent été moqués ou marginalisés. Le temps leur a donné raison. Mais la tentation demeure : celle de croire que tout ennemi de l’Occident est forcément porteur d’un avenir désirable. C’est une illusion. Elle pervertit la critique et dévoie la solidarité.

Encore aujourd’hui, certains réduisent l’Occident à ses fautes, tout en idéalisant un Sud supposé plus pur. Mais la Chine persécute ses minorités. L’Inde cède au nationalisme religieux. Le Qatar réprime la liberté d’expression. En Afrique, des conflits persistent, et la démocratie reste fragile. La Turquie muselle ses journalistes. La Hongrie d’Orbán sape l’indépendance de la justice, malgré les avertissements européens. Nul continent, nul régime n’échappe aux rapports de domination, au patriarcat ou à la violence d’État. Les oppositions binaires — Nord coupable, Sud innocent — obscurcissent les responsabilités réelles. Elles ne construisent rien.

La désinformation numérique aggrave ce brouillage. Des puissances autoritaires exploitent les failles des démocraties ouvertes pour y semer le doute, délégitimer la presse, fragmenter les opinions. Les réseaux sociaux, loin d’être de simples outils de mobilisation, servent aussi de caisses de résonance aux régimes qui nient la liberté. TikTok en Chine, RT en Russie, Al Jazeera au Qatar ou encore les campagnes de harcèlement idéologique sur X ou Facebook façonnent une vision du monde où tout se vaut… sauf l’Occident, toujours désigné coupable.

Critiquer l’Occident est légitime, même salutaire. Le condamner en bloc, sans nuances, au profit de régimes qui bâillonnent toute dissidence, est une faute morale. C’est ici, encore, que la liberté est pensable. Ici qu’un texte peut être écrit sans permission, qu’une voix peut s’élever sans craindre la prison, la torture ou l’exil. Ici que les débats peuvent être vifs, même désordonnés, mais encore possibles. Cette ouverture, fragile mais réelle, rend possibles la réforme, l’autocritique et l’émancipation.

Défendre l’Occident, ce n’est pas nier ses fautes ni s’enfermer dans l’autosatisfaction. C’est protéger ce qui rend la justice pensable, la liberté audible et la dissidence légitime. C’est refuser de troquer une démocratie imparfaite pour un autoritarisme sans pardon. C’est, aussi, se battre pour que l’universalisme démocratique ne soit pas abandonné aux nostalgiques d’empires ou aux cyniques postmodernes.

Comme le rappelait Churchill, la démocratie est la pire forme de gouvernement… à l’exception de toutes les autres.

Claude André Le signataire est enseignant en science politique et auteur.

Source: Idées | Critiquer l’Occident, oui, le liquider, non

While China imprisons, Iran tortures and Russia murders, some Western intellectuals continue to turn their rage against their own camp. By dint of demonizing liberal democracy in the name of an anti-colonialism that has become Pavlovian, we forget a simple truth: here, we can still speak freely. Elsewhere, we shut up… or we disappear.

By seeing only our faults, we forget that liberal democracy, despite its limits, remains the last reformable framework. It is not perfect, but it remains the only system that accepts to be questioned from within, that guarantees citizens the right to challenge without fear and that makes it possible to question its own.

“Hypocrisy of a double speech”, is often heard as a statement delegitimising the West. Yet many civilizations have enslaved or dominated other peoples. Human history is saturated with conquests, operating systems, imposed hierarchies. Chinese dynasties, Arab empires, African or European kingdoms have all practiced violence. The West therefore does not have a monopoly on brutality. What distinguishes it is not the absence of ignominy, but the ability to recognize and contest it. If this tradition of self-criticism collapses, it gives way to complacency, cynicism, or indifference to real struggles for freedom elsewhere in the world.

The liberal revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in England, the United States and France forged an unprecedented order: separation of powers, responsibility of rulers, individual rights, popular sovereignty. These principles, imperfect in their application, have nevertheless produced institutions capable of limiting abuses, of regulating arbitrariness, of giving rise to counter-powers. It is here, more than elsewhere, that slavery has been abolished, that women and minorities have won rights, that the press and academic freedoms have been able to unfold. These advances are not abstract: they have been wrested out of struggle. And when these institutions are bypassed, as was recently the case in the United States or Poland, it is the entire democratic pact that falters.

Civil society and NGOs play a crucial role. Associations, trade unions, citizens’ movements and whistleblowers are actively participating in the questioning of excesses. This vitality contrasts with the systematic repression that affects these actors in most authoritarian regimes.

Today, this framework is weakened. On the right, we dream of a restored order, where authority would prevail over debate. On the left, some militant circles denounce liberal democracy as an imposture. Criticism is necessary, but it becomes toxic when it only targets the West, sparing the current worst regimes. China, Iran or Russia are sometimes minimized, even rehabilitated, in the name of an anti-imperialism that has become Pavlovian. The refusal to name certain oppressions is already a form of complicity.

This phenomenon is not new. The intellectual history of the twentieth century bears the traces: Foucault saluting the Iranian revolution of 1979, Sartre closing his eyes to the gulags, Aragon justifying the crimes of Stalinism in the name of loyalty to the Party. Those who resisted these blindness – Camus, Aron, Koestler – were often mocked or marginalized. Time proved them right. But the temptation remains: that of believing that any enemy of the West is necessarily the bearer of a desirable future. It’s an illusion. It perverts criticism and deviates solidarity.

Even today, some reduce the West to its faults, while idealizing a supposedly purer South. But China is persecuting its minorities. India gave in to religious nationalism. Qatar represses freedom of expression. In Africa, conflicts persist, and democracy remains fragile. Turkey muzzles its journalists. Orbán’s Hungary undermines the independence of justice, despite European warnings. No continent, no regime escapes relations of domination, patriarchy or state violence. Binary oppositions — Guilty North, Innocent South — obscure real responsibilities. They don’t build anything.

Digital disinformation aggravates this scrambling. Authoritarian powers exploit the flaws of open democracies to sow doubt, delegitimize the press, and fragment opinions. Social networks, far from being simple mobilization tools, also serve as sounding boxes for regimes that deny freedom. TikTok in China, RT in Russia, Al Jazeera in Qatar or ideological harassment campaigns on X or Facebook shape a worldview where everything is worth… except the West, always called guilty.

Criticizing the West is legitimate, even salutary. Condemning him en bloc, without nuances, in favor of regimes that gag all dissent, is a moral fault. It is here, again, that freedom is thinkable. Here that a text can be written without permission, that a voice can rise without fear of prison, torture or exile. Here that the debates can be lively, even messy, but still possible. This opening, fragile but real, makes reform, self-criticism and emancipation possible.

Defending the West is not denying its faults or locking oneself in self-satisfaction. It is to protect what makes justice thinkable, audible freedom and legitimate dissent. It is to refuse to exchange an imperfect democracy for an authoritarianism without forgiveness. It is also fighting so that democratic universalism is not abandoned to the nostalgic of empires or the cynic postmoderns.

As Churchill recalled, democracy is the worst form of government… with the exception of all the others.

Claude André The signatory is a teacher of political science and author.

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Regg Cohn | The debate over Toronto’s ‘bubble zone’ bylaw reveals a glaring double standard

2025/07/17 Leave a comment

Indeed:

Toronto’s new “bubble zone” bylaw keeps rubbing some progressives the wrong way.

Which way, one wonders, is the wrong way?

That depends on how people see right from wrong — but also right-wing from left-wing. For this controversy is increasingly about ideology — and identity.

Lest we forget, the bubble debate goes way back — long before the conflict in the Middle East was superimposed upon a Canadian template. It predates the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and hostage-taking, and the Israeli counterattacks and overkill that followed, and the antisemitic outbursts that have long been out of control.

In the beginning was the abortion debate, pitting the right to harass against the right to choose. Put another way, bubble zones were first conceived in the context of zygotes, not Zionists (What is a Zionist? A supporter of self-determination for the Jews of Israel, which defines most Jews in Canada).

Progressives, legislators and judges long ago agreed that pregnant women in distress deserved better than to be tormented on their way into an abortion clinic. So-called free speech was restricted so that vulnerable women could do what they were legally entitled to do, under protection of law.

Later, bubble zones were extended to protect medical professionals — doctors, nurses, clinicians, assistants — who were trying to keep people healthy, not just in abortion clinics but vaccination clinics. The courts have consistently upheld the right of freedom from harassment from the right to free speech in such circumstances, where pro-choicers (and pro-vaxxers) have no choice but to be at a clinic.

Toronto’s new bubble bylaw came into effect last month after a year of bitter debate on city council. It sparked much hand-wringing on the sidelines from self-styled civil libertarians about the value of uncivil discourse, and from self-styled progressive protesters about the virtue of unpleasant demonstrations.

This month, we learned that more than a dozen Jewish schools and synagogues have sought and received anti-protest protections, requiring protesters to keep 50 metres away during service hours. Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca led the way with a similar bubble zone, albeit 100 metres wide, after a series of ugly confrontations that he believed crossed a line outside synagogues.

Why shouldn’t religious minorities have the same protection accorded to doctors or nurses, pregnant women or vaccine patients? If Canadians don’t believe in compelled speech, why compel worshippers to face hateful protests or violent incidents that recur with disturbing frequency?

This glaring contradiction about who deserves bubble zones — and who doesn’t — reminds me of the awkward irony that infuses the anti-abortion movement in America: Life begins at conception and cannot be aborted, but capital punishment is a fitting punishment for those on death row, we are told in the same breath.

It seems a bubble zone is a lightning rod and a litmus test. But this doesn’t pass the smell test.

Many Muslims feel vulnerable after a London family of four was killed by an attacker in 2021, said Sheila Carter, who co-chairs the Canadian Interfaith Conservation and also works with Islamic Relief Canada, adding: “We should, as Canadians, be able to move forward safely, freely, happily with whatever faith we are,”

Ask civil libertarians, however, and they insist that free speech is an absolute — abortion excepted.

Anaïs Bussières McNicoll of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association argued against Toronto’s bubble zone by quoting an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that protests are a time-tested way of “redressing grievances.”

Really? How could Canadian Jews, whose schools have been targeted, address grievances against a foreign government — unless one believes school-age Jews, like all Jews, have magical powers to transcend borders?

Bussières quoted approvingly from another court ruling that protesters must not be barred “from public space traditionally used for the expression of dissent because of the discomfort their protest causes.” But the House of Commons isn’t a house of worship or a classroom, so when did people at prayers or students at school become “traditionally” fair game for the “discomfort” of hateful confrontations on their sabbath?

Let’s not confuse the thought police with the right to be protected. Banning books is bad because people should be exposed to diverse ideas and can choose what they want to read; people at prayers have no such choice if they are going to a mosque or synagogue.

I don’t have to persuade progressives of the need for abortion bubbles, because they (and I) support them: They cheerfully back a bubble to shield pregnant women from religious zealots at an abortion clinic, yet they reflexively oppose an anti-bullying bubble to protect religious people from overzealous protesters.

To be clear, protest has its place in a public space. But no one, whether prayerful or pregnant, should be compelled to endure unwanted harassment — be it at a medical clinic or a house of worship.

Source: Opinion | The debate over Toronto’s ‘bubble zone’ bylaw reveals a glaring double standard

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Nécessaires ou trop chères, les missions de recrutement à l’étranger ?

2025/07/17 Leave a comment

Wonder whether any comparable analysis in other provinces:

Alors que Québec instaurait déjà des resserrements à l’immigration temporaire, le même gouvernement a continué à dépenser des millions pour embaucher à l’étranger lors des Journées Québec. Des mesures de recrutement existent toujours dans d’autres ministères, pendant que l’avenir de ces missions du ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) fait encore l’objet d’une étude.

Québec et Ottawa ont tour à tour gelé les embauches de travailleurs temporaires à bas salaire il y a près d’un an. Le ministre québécois de l’Immigration, Jean-François Roberge, a annoncé en novembre que les missions de recrutement seraient mises sur pause aux fins de « cohéren[ce] avec [les] objectifs de réduction des résidents non permanents », indique aujourd’hui son cabinet.

Encore essentielles pour certains, « du gaspillage » pour d’autres, les missions gouvernementales à l’étranger n’ont finalement été suspendues qu’en janvier 2025. L’an dernier, elles auront coûté plus de 5 millions de dollars pour recruter 762 travailleurs, dont près de 1 million au sein du MIFI.

De toutes les embauches, le MIFI ne sait dire combien de personnes ont réellement atterri au Québec et occupent les emplois visés.

« Ce qu’on faisait et qu’on continue à faire, c’est du travail chirurgical pour répondre à des besoins précis pour des travailleurs qualifiés », explique Stéphane Paquet, président-directeur général de Montréal International, « pas pour aller chercher du cheap labor ». La région de Montréal et de Laval a beau être soumise à un gel de l’embauche à bas salaire, ces besoins « n’ont pas disparu, au contraire » : de tous les postes vacants au Québec, trois sur cinq se trouvent dans l’agglomération montréalaise, rappelle-t-il.

La situation de la Capitale-Nationale et de Chaudière-Appalaches « reste particulière », avec des taux de chômage plus bas que la moyenne provinciale, ce qui crée des « tensions sur l’emploi », ajoute Carl Viel, président-directeur général de Québec International.

Les deux organisations et Drummond économique ont vu leur financement gouvernemental, d’un total d’environ 4,3 millions de dollars, prendre fin le 31 mars dernier. Ils ont alors dû remercier plus d’une dizaine de personnes.

« Le besoin existe malgré les restrictions de nature parfois politique », soutient aussi Anthony Chiasson-Leblanc, consultant réglementé en immigration et cofondateur d’Equinox World. Il dénonce toutefois que le MIFI « se soit improvisé recruteur » et « prenne la place du privé » dans un marché où l’expérience sur le terrain est cruciale.

Il croit que ce n’est pas aux « deniers publics » à payer pour le recrutement, ou du moins pas dans cette formule des Journées Québec, « où il y a beaucoup de pertes d’efficacité », dit-il. M. Chiasson-Leblanc mentionne à ce titre des publicités mal ciblées et des rencontres tenues dans des endroits éloignés des bassins réels de recrutement, par exemple.

Ce n’est pas la première fois que ce recrutement est perçu comme un « double discours », selon ses mots. Ou en tout cas comme un « paradoxe », comme mentionné par le Conseil du patronat en 2023 quand Le Devoir a révélé que Québec investissait des dizaines de millions de dollars pour trouver des travailleurs à l’étranger.

Fluctuations importantes

Le succès de telles journées semble aussi à géométrie variable. Au Mexique, en mai 2024, l’opération aura coûté 5359 $ par embauche ; d’autres missions, respectivement en Colombie et au Maroc, n’ont dépensé que 80 $ ou 225 $ en moyenne par travailleur recruté, apprend-on dans le Cahier explicatif des crédits 2024-2025.

Certains événements de recrutement se sont tenus exclusivement en ligne, notamment en Europe, où 139 435 $ ont été dépensés en frais de promotion pour quatre jours. Ces frais « comprennent les honoraires de l’agence de publicité et les dépenses liées aux achats médias », précise par courriel le MIFI.

Aux yeux de certains recruteurs privés, cette publicité est un coup d’épée dans l’eau. « La meilleure façon de trouver est à travers un réseau de contacts établis et avec des recruteurs locaux », poursuit M. Chiasson-Leblanc.

« Oui, c’est sûr que le chiffre d’embauches a de l’importance, mais les employeurs ne cherchent pas tous le même type de candidats ou de niveau d’expertise », souligne Stéphane Paquet, qui veut décourager toute comparaison des missions.

Les démarches étant parfois longues, certaines embauches pourraient ne pas être comptabilisées dans les statistiques « à la fermeture des livres », répond le MIFI.

Québec International parle aussi d’une « planification sur plusieurs années », qui permettait par exemple à des candidats à l’excellent profil professionnel d’améliorer leur français d’une année à l’autre.

Confiance

Les trois organisations assurent que les fonds publics étaient utilisés à bon escient. « Ce n’est pas le gouvernement qui recrute, ce sont les entreprises. On restait un service d’accompagnement », fait valoir le p.-d.g. de Montréal International. L’organisme recrute à l’étranger depuis 2010, et l’appui du MIFI lui permettait d’avoir « une meilleure vitesse de croisière » et de coûter moins cher aux entreprises elles-mêmes.

Ces trois agences de promotion économique ont par ailleurs prévu des missions du même genre que les Journées Québec, notamment à Paris en novembre prochain, mais, cette fois, sans appui financier du MIFI.

« C’est important pour nous de maintenir les liens avec les différentes autorités sur les territoires », note Carl Viel, comme le Pôle emploi en France.

Le sceau gouvernemental donnait aussi l’assurance de faire affaire avec « des tiers de confiance », poursuit-il.

Anthony Chiasson-Leblanc rejette l’argument, rappelant que des campagnes frauduleuses utilisant les noms « Journées Québec » ou « Recrutement Santé Québec » ont même été orchestrées. À ses yeux, la confiance se bâtit dans un processus à plusieurs au moyen d’entrevues préalables et, le cas échéant, d’un test de compétence effectué « directement sur la machinerie » une fois la personne sur place.

Le gouvernement de François Legault demande au fédéral de réduire de 50 % le plafond de certaines catégories de résidents non permanents. Le ministre Roberge a récemment demandé à son homologue fédérale d’appliquer une « clause de type grand-père » aux compagnies en région, une revendication de longue date des associations d’affaires.

La décision sur l’avenir des Journées Québec « sera prise en temps et lieu » après les consultations de l’automne prochain sur la planification pluriannuelle, nous signale le cabinet du ministre de l’Immigration.

Les changements successifs et rapides en matière d’immigration, dont les restrictions de l’immigration permanente, commencent à ternir la réputation du Québec à l’étranger, croit Stéphane Paquet. « Plusieurs grandes sociétés vont décider de faire venir les travailleurs ailleurs qu’ici, comme à Toronto ou dans une autre ville de l’Amérique du Nord. »…

Source: Nécessaires ou trop chères, les missions de recrutement à l’étranger ?

While Quebec was already introducing tightening of temporary immigration, the same government continued to spend millions to hire abroad during the Quebec Days. Recruitment measures still exist in other ministries, while the future of these missions of the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI) is still under study.

Quebec City and Ottawa have in turn frozen the hiring of low-wage temporary workers almost a year ago. Quebec’s Minister of Immigration, Jean-François Roberge, announced in November that recruitment missions would be paused for the purpose of “coherence with [the] objectives of reducing non-permanent residents,” his office said today.

Still essential for some, “waste” for others, government missions abroad were finally suspended only in January 2025. Last year, they will have cost more than $5 million to recruit 762 workers, including nearly 1 million within the MIFI.

Of all the hirings, MIFI cannot say how many people have actually landed in Quebec and occupy the targeted jobs.

“What we did and continue to do is surgical work to meet specific needs for skilled workers,” explains Stéphane Paquet, President and CEO of Montreal International, “not to get cheap labor.” The Montreal and Laval region may be subject to a freeze of low-wage hiring, but these needs “have not disappeared, on the contrary”: of all the vacancies in Quebec, three out of five are in the Montreal agglomeration, he recalls.

The situation in the Capitale-Nationale and Chaudière-Appalaches “remains particular”, with unemployment rates lower than the provincial average, which creates “tensions on employment,” adds Carl Viel, President and CEO of Quebec International.

The two organizations and Drummond économique saw their government funding, totalling about $4.3 million, ended on March 31. They then had to thank more than a dozen people.

“The need exists despite sometimes political restrictions,” also says Anthony Chiasson-Leblanc, regulated immigration consultant and co-founder of Equinox World. However, he denounces that MIFI “has improvised as a recruiter” and “takes the place of the private sector” in a market where field experience is crucial.

He believes that it is not up to “public money” to pay for recruitment, or at least not in this formula of Quebec Days, “where there are many losses in efficiency,” he says. Chiasson-Leblanc mentions poorly targeted advertisements and meetings held in places far from the actual recruitment pools, for example.

This is not the first time that this recruitment has been perceived as a “double speech”, in his words. Or at least as a “paradox”, as mentioned by the Employers’ Council in 2023 when Le Devoir revealed that Quebec was investing tens of millions of dollars to find workers abroad.

Significant fluctuations

The success of such days also seems to be of variable geometry. In Mexico, in May 2024, the operation will have cost $5359 per hiring; other missions, respectively in Colombia and Morocco, spent only $80 or $225 on average per recruited worker, we learn in the 2024-2025 Explanatory Book of Credits.

Some recruitment events were held exclusively online, especially in Europe, where $139,435 was spent on promotional fees for four days. These fees “include the fees of the advertising agency and expenses related to media purchases,” says the MIFI by email.

In the eyes of some private recruiters, this advertisement is a stroke of the sword in the water. “The best way to find is through a network of established contacts and with local recruiters,” continues Mr. Chiasson-Leblanc

“Yes, it is certain that the number of hirings is important, but employers are not all looking for the same type of candidates or level of expertise,” says Stéphane Paquet, who wants to discourage any comparison of missions.

As the procedures are sometimes long, some hirings may not be counted in the statistics “at the closing of the books”, answers the MIFI.

Québec International also speaks of “multi-year planning”, which allowed, for example, candidates with an excellent professional profile to improve their French from one year to the next.

Trust

The three organizations assure that the public funds were used wisely. “It’s not the government that recruits, it’s the companies. We remained a support service, “says the CO of Montreal International. The organization has been recruiting abroad since 2010, and the support of MIFI allowed it to have “a better cruising speed” and to cost less to the companies themselves.

These three economic promotion agencies have also planned missions of the same kind as the Quebec Days, especially in Paris next November, but this time without financial support from MIFI.

“It is important for us to maintain links with the various authorities in the territories,” notes Carl Viel, like the Pôle emploi in France.

The government seal also gave the assurance of doing business with “trusted third parties,” he continues.

Anthony Chiasson-Leblanc rejects the argument, recalling that fraudulent campaigns using the names “Journées Québec” or “Recruitment Santé Québec” have even been orchestrated. In his view, trust is built in a multi-personal process through prior interviews and, if necessary, a proficiency test carried out “directly on the machinery” once the person is on site.

François Legault’s government is asking the federal government to reduce the ceiling for certain categories of non-permanent residents by 50%. Minister Roberge recently asked his federal counterpart to apply a “grandfather-like clause” to companies in the region, a long-standing demand of business associations.

The decision on the future of the Quebec Days “will be taken in due course” after next fall’s consultations on multi-year planning, the Office of the Minister of Immigration tells us.

Successive and rapid changes in immigration, including restrictions on permanent immigration, are beginning to tarnish Quebec’s reputation abroad, believes Stéphane Paquet. “Several large companies will decide to bring workers elsewhere than here, such as in Toronto or another city in North America. “…

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Krauss: Trump’s War on Science

2025/07/17 Leave a comment

Hard not to agree on the medium to long term impact. The age of ignorance…:

…The economic and military interests of the nation are best served by supporting a vibrant research culture in STEM fields like physics and biology. We need materials science and aerospace engineering research to develop new batteries and hardened materials for use in the military, as well as theoretical work in areas like quantum physics—which is vital not just for quantum computing but also for encoding sensitive messages. We need biological research in areas like immunology and genomics to protect against future pandemics. In short, the best and brightest scientists in the country need to be supported and encouraged to conduct curiosity-driven research—which produced almost half the current GDP of the nation within a single generation.

To do all this, we will also need to recruit the brightest minds from all over the world. Instead, the current administration seems bent on disallowing talented foreign scholars and students from studying and working in this country. In the past, many of these students—including Elon Musk—chose to stay in the United States after their studies ended and have created innovative technologies that have bolstered the US economy in myriad ways.

The culture wars in higher education have hurt both teaching and research, but the current policy of dismantling the government–science partnership that has helped drive US leadership in science and technology is worse. Leadership in these fields may soon pass to Europe—or, worse, to China. A great deal of damage has already been done, and it may soon be too late to fix it, as laboratories close down and first-rate researchers either leave their fields or move abroad.

Curiosity-driven science and research are crucial to the economic success of our nation. They must not be made subservient to political goals. It is worth remembering the words of Robert Wilson, the first director of the Fermi National Laboratory, which houses the nation’s largest particle accelerator. In 1969, when Congress asked him whether the particle accelerator would aid in the defence of the nation, Wilson responded, “It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to make it worth defending.”

Source: Trump’s War on Science

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Peter Menzies: Travis Dhanraj’s CBC resignation reveals the truth about media ‘diversity’ in Canada 

2025/07/16 Leave a comment

Of interest:

…While this “public attack on the integrity of CBC News” was something that, according to Kelly, “saddened” Dhanraj’s former employer, it made him a hero to conservatives who have long complained the Crown corporation bears a prejudice towards them and their causes.

But they should be careful about rushing to conclusions. Dhanraj’s complaints may delight by confirming their opinions, but there are always at least two sides to a story (even though in his blog last week, CBC editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon insists that is not always the case).

Commentators on the right, however, didn’t hesitate. They took full advantage of the CBC’s blushes, joining the chorus by adding their voices to those of Dhanraj and Marshall to decry their competition’s imbalance while proudly displaying their own. The irony that one publicly-funded outlet could be demanding balance from another publicly-funded entity because it is publicly funded was not lost on me. But among the more compelling voices was that of Julia Malott, a transwoman who doesn’t run with the herd. She expressed gratitude in the National Post for Dhanraj’s willingness to allow their contrary views to be part of his (now cancelled) show.

Dhanraj isn’t the first journalist of colour to run into trouble with a publicly licensed employer for not complying with managerial expectations. Jamil Jivani, now the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bowmanville-Oshawa North, made a similar case against Bell Mediafollowing the termination of what was clearly an unhappy spell for him as the only full-time black host on that company’s Newstalk 1010 and iHeart radio network.

“There was an expectation that because he’s Black he should have been saying and doing certain things—because in Bell’s mind he was checking this token box, and when they realized they weren’t getting the kind of Black man they wanted, that’s when he was out the door,” said his lawyerat the time—the same Kathryn Marshall who is now representing Dhanraj.

She said it was “outrageous” that white media executives used diversity as a wedge to fire their only black radio host.

That matter was, in the end, quietly settled. The same hush could not save Bell’s blushes in the matter of Patricia Jaggernauth, an Emmy award-winning host who dragged the vertically-integrated behemoth before the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

That case was not related to editorial perspectives, but was focused on what the commission referred to as “a pattern of discrimination in pay,” which, when you think about it, doesn’t exactly lighten the DEI load.

Dhanraj said in his departure letter that he “was fighting for balance” and in response was “accused of being on a ‘crusade.’”

Both can be true.

And if they are, that’s exactly the sort of crusade the nation needs to bring real diversity, balance, and objectivity to its newsrooms. Let’s go.

Source: Peter Menzies: Travis Dhanraj’s CBC resignation reveals the truth about media ‘diversity’ in Canada

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Carney’s plan to cut tens of billions in spending is tough but doable, experts say

2025/07/16 Leave a comment

Always interesting to listen to the assessments of previous clerks on some of the lessons learned:

….Mel Cappe, who served as clerk of the Privy Council from 1999 to 2002, a position that includes heading up the public service, said meeting those targets will be tough but doable.

“There’s somebody in the public who’s going to be outraged by the cuts,” he said. “This is going to require all ministers holding hands, saying prayers together.”

…But previous clerks of the Privy Council say it will be difficult for the government to avoid cutting staff because wages, benefits and pensions are such a large part of the operating budget.Leaning on attrition

In 2023-24, excluding one-time payments like back pay made after a new collective agreement was signed, the federal government spent $65.3 billion on salaries, pensions and benefits. That was a 10 per cent increase over the previous year.

“In 1995, the wage bill was so high that it was necessary to invest some money to facilitate people to leave by giving them cashouts,” Cappe said.

“If you are going to do that on a massive scale, you have to be prepared to see those costs up front. Because it will save you a lot of money in the long run.”

Michael Wernick — the clerk of the Privy Council from 2016 to 2019 — told CBC News that relying on attrition “doesn’t make any sense as a management strategy.”

“What happens if your absolute key cybersecurity expert retires next week? You’re not going to replace her?” he said. “If your aspiration is a serious compression of the numbers, then you have to be more mindful about it and you have to do layoffs and buyouts.”

Where you cut — rather than how much

One of the ways the prime minister has said his government will cut operating expenses is by looking for ways to employ artificial intelligence and automation.

Wernick says that approach will require investment in training and technology and that, like buyouts for public servants, comes with an upfront cost.

But both former clerks say the Liberal government can hit its targets and they have a suggestion for how it can be done.

“Stop doing some things, rather than an across-the-board cut,” Cappe said.

By going this route, staff no longer carrying out a given function can be moved to work on other government priorities. Wernick says cutting entire lines of business also prevents spending from creeping back up.

“If you don’t kill the program entirely, the pressure to restore it will come in almost immediately from the clients, from the mayors, from the caucus,” Wernick said.

Donald Savoie, an expert in public administration and governance at the Université de Moncton, said the government can be downsized without hurting service delivery.

“Let’s look at programs that we don’t need anymore, let’s look at organizations that we don’t need anymore,” Savoie said.

He said there is also room to cut the use of consultants and outside contractors, but Wernick warned doing so would cut off access to expertise. That can be mitigated, he said, by training public servants — but that comes with an upfront cost.

Trying to emulate Chrétien and Martin’s fiscal success

Savoie said Carney has two things in common with Chrétien that bode well for his cost-cutting ambitions.

The first is that unlike Brian Mulroney, Stephen Harper and Trudeau, both Carney and Chrétien had experience working in government well before securing the country’s highest office.

Savoie said that means Carney, like Chrétien before him, knows which levers to pull.

The other thing both men share is a mandate to respond to a national crisis. In the 1990s, Canada’s federal debt was so large compared to the economy that a third of every dollar collected in tax went just to service its interest payments.

“I think what helped Chrétien immensely in 1994-95 is Canadians were seized with a real crisis,” Savoie said.

“So Canadians said: ‘we got a problem’ and so [Chrétien] could draw on public support. And in the same vein, Carney can draw on public support because Canadians see that dealing with Trump, dealing with tariffs, is very tough and some tough decisions have to be taken.”

For that reason, Savoie said, Canadians will be much more open to suffering through cuts than they were five to 10 years ago, which may be just enough political licence for the expenditure review to bear fruit.

Source: Carney’s plan to cut tens of billions in spending is tough but doable, experts say

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Federal envoy urges Ontario to act on antisemitism in its public schools

2025/07/16 Leave a comment

Of note:

Canada’s special envoy on antisemitism says Ontario school boards need to take seriously incidents of anti-Jewish bigotry targeted at students in public schools.

Deborah Lyons commissioned a survey of nearly 600 Jewish parents in the province, and found hundreds of children were subjected to incidents including antisemitic bullying and blame for the carnage of Israel’s military conduct in the Gaza Strip.

The survey logged 781 incidents between October 2023 and January 2025 that Jewish families reported as antisemitic, such as children chanting Nazi slogans and giving salutes, and teachers telling students that Israel does not exist.

Of the reported incidents, 60 per cent involved what the survey deemed “extreme anti-Israel sentiments,” such as describing Israel as “fundamentally a racist state, that it is committing genocide in Gaza.”

The other 40 per cent involved anti-Jewish attitudes writ large, such as denying the Holocaust, or describing Jews as cheap or having control over the media.

Lyons’ office approached various Jewish groups to promote the survey to their members and ask them to complete it.

Some parents reported moving their children to different schools, or having their children remove things that identified them as Jewish while attending school.

The report marks a rare move of federal rapporteurs singling out issues outside of Ottawa’s jurisdiction.

The Ontario government said antisemitism is unacceptable in its schools.

“We expect school boards across the province to focus on student achievement and creating supportive classrooms,” wrote Emma Testani, press secretary for provincial education minister Paul Calandra.

“We will continue working with our education partners to keep politics out of the classroom and ensure schools remain focused on helping students succeed.”

Michael Levitt, a former Liberal MP who runs a Jewish advocacy group, called the survey “a searing indictment” of how the education system treats Jewish students.

“While the Ontario government and some school boards are making an effort to bring antisemitism training and Holocaust education to staff and students, our education system must do more to root out antisemitism and hold perpetrators accountable,” wrote Levitt, head of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Canada has endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which has attracted controversy among academics and free-speech advocates.

The IHRA definition says it is anti-Jewish to single out Israel for criticism not levelled at other countries, to deem the creation of Israel “a racist endeavour” or to compare Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

Pro-Palestinian groups have said the definition could be used against those who accuse Israel of implementing an apartheid system and intentionally starving people in Gaza.

Source: Federal envoy urges Ontario to act on antisemitism in its public schools

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

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