Chris Selley: Liberals gave anti-Israel protesters everything, but they’re still paying for it

2025/01/22 Leave a comment

Sadly accurate:

…The response to Sunday’s gong show has mostly been the same dispiriting, meaningless platitudes we’ve been hearing since October 2023. Adjectives are deployed: “outrageous,” “intolerable,” “un-Canadian,” even “illegal.” But to no end.

“It’s good to protest,” Freeland burbled at her campaign launch, which is an odd thing to say when lunatics are protesting you for not doing something that you couldn’t and can’t. “But it is not OK to stop others from speaking,” Freeland continued.

She’ll get no argument from me on that point … except that it clearly is OK, to the extent that no one ever suffers any consequences for doing it. It’s also not OK to protest Jewish neighbourhoods because they’re Jewish, or businesses because they’re owned by Jews. It’s not OK to fly an antisemitic terrorist organization’s flag. It’s not remotely OK, indeed it’s a national scandal, that many Jewish Canadians are very understandably scared.

But here we are. And no one in charge, or auditioning to be in charge, seems to have anything halfway resembling a plan, strategy or solution to deal with this thuggery.

Source: Chris Selley: Liberals gave anti-Israel protesters everything, but they’re still paying for it

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Halt of ‘Lost Canadians’ bill could mean citizenship for thousands born to parents with no ties to Canada

2025/01/22 Leave a comment

The current government needs to seek an extension (and allow enough time for a new government to pass needed legislation) and Judge Akbarali needs to acknowledge the political reality behind an extension and thus not enable such a vacuum.

The expected Conservative government should reintroduce the C-71 residency test approach but, crucially, require the residency be met within five years:

Ottawa’s failure to pass a bill granting citizenship to Lost Canadians – children born abroad to foreign-born Canadians – could lead to thousands of people whose parents have never been here automatically qualifying as citizens.

Bill C-71 was one of 26 pieces of legislation stopped in its tracks this month by the proroguing of Parliament.

It was introduced by the federal government last year after an Ontario court ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny citizenship to children born in another country to Canadians also born outside Canada.

The bill is meant to reverse a change by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2009 that stripped children of a Canadian parent born outside Canada of their automatic right to citizenship.

But now experts warn that the figure could be much higher. If the bill dies, thousands more children of Canadians born abroad, to those who have never been to Canada, would qualify for citizenship when the court ruling comes into effect in March, without added restrictions on who can be a citizen.

As well as restoring citizenship rights, Bill C-71 also limits who can pass on citizenship to ensure that Canadians born abroad, who have spent their entire lives outside Canada, would not be able to automatically confer the right to a Canadian passport onto their children. They would have to show, under the bill, that they were physically in Canada for at least 1,095 days (the equivalent of three years cumulatively) before their child’s birth.

Lawyer Sujit Choudhry, head of Hāki Chambers, who successfully brought the court challenge on behalf of his Lost Canadian clients, said Bill C-71 would have not only ended the second-generation cutoff but would have brought in “a substantial connection test.“

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the death of the legislation, which she said was now likely, would mean that there are no safeguards requiring links to Canada….

Source: Halt of ‘Lost Canadians’ bill could mean citizenship for thousands born to parents with no ties to Canada

Filed under C-71, Citizenship Tagged with ,

Canada’s immigration department cutting 3,300 jobs, prompting concerns over backlogs and processing times

2025/01/21 Leave a comment

The federal immigration department will reduce its workforce by more than 20 per cent, sparking concerns over further backlogs and longer processing times for applications.

On Monday, immigration staff were told that 3,300 jobs are going to be eliminated and details would follow in mid-February, according to the Canada Employment and Immigration Union, which represents 35,000 employees at Immigration, Service Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and the refugee board.

“Immigration processing wait times continued to reach record-breaking backlog levels, and these cuts will only worsen an already dire situation,” Rubina Boucher, the union’s national president, said in a statement.

“Families longing to reunite, businesses grappling with critical labour shortages and a health-care system desperate for skilled workers will all suffer the consequences of this reckless decision.”

The news of the layoffs followed the Liberal government’s plan to reduce the number of new permanent and temporary residents admitted to Canada in the coming three years in its attempt to slow down the country’s population growth amid the affordability crisis.

It also came in the wake of the department’s recent decisions to significantly cut funding to organizations that assist newcomers with settlement and integration through employment-related services, language training and community support.

Between 2020 and 2023, the Immigration Department’s workforce grew from 9,207 to 13,685 — about 30 per cent of whom were contract, “casual” and students — to beef up its operational capacity to deal with backlogs created during the pandemic and meet the federal government’s then targets to raise immigration levels.

As of late November, the department had 2,267,700 permanent and temporary immigration applications in the system; more than one million of them had exceeded its own targeted processing times. Overall, 38 per cent of permanent residence applications and 54 per cent of temporary residence applications in the queue were considered backlogged.

While it’s too early to know if this would simply mean a diversion of staff to other areas of government operations such as the asylum system, Toronto immigration lawyer Rick Lamanna of the Fragomen law firm said immigration applicants to Canada should expect some processing delays moving forward. 

Source: Canada’s immigration department cutting 3,300 jobs, prompting concerns over backlogs and processing times



Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Trump Executive Orders of Interest

2025/01/21 Leave a comment

Many of these will be subject to litigation. Similarly to the Harper government’s titles of legislation, the titles have political rather than more neutral language. A selection of the one’s I will be watching in particular and expect considerable commentary and likely legal challenges:

Citizenship

PROTECTING THE MEANING AND VALUE OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP [ACLU and others already submitted a legal challenge, and it appears to be framed more broadly than just women not in the USA legally as it includes temporary residents such as international students and workers. Indian media has particularly flagged impact on H1-B and other visa holders.]

Section 1.  Purpose.  The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift.  The Fourteenth Amendment states:  “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  That provision rightly repudiated the Supreme Court of the United States’s shameful decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which misinterpreted the Constitution as permanently excluding people of African descent from eligibility for United States citizenship solely based on their race. 

But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.  The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”  Consistent with this understanding, the Congress has further specified through legislation that “a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a national and citizen of the United States at birth, 8 U.S.C. 1401, generally mirroring the Fourteenth Amendment’s text.  

Among the categories of individuals born in the United States and not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States:  (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.

Sec. 2.  Policy.  (a)  It is the policy of the United States that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons:  (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.

Immigration

PROTECTING THE UNITED STATES FROM FOREIGN TERRORISTS AND OTHER NATIONAL SECURITY AND PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS

Section 1.  Policy and Purpose.  (a)  It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.

(b)  To protect Americans, the United States must be vigilant during the visa-issuance process to ensure that those aliens approved for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans or our national interests.  More importantly, the United States must identify them before their admission or entry into the United States.  And the United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.

PROTECTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AGAINST INVASION

Section 1.  Purpose.  Over the last 4 years, the prior administration invited, administered, and oversaw an unprecedented flood of illegal immigration into the United States.  Millions of illegal aliens crossed our borders or were permitted to fly directly into the United States on commercial flights and allowed to settle in American communities, in violation of longstanding Federal laws.

Many of these aliens unlawfully within the United States present significant threats to national security and public safety, committing vile and heinous acts against innocent Americans.  Others are engaged in hostile activities, including espionage, economic espionage, and preparations for terror-related activities.  Many have abused the generosity of the American people, and their presence in the United States has cost taxpayers billions of dollars at the Federal, State, and local levels.

Enforcing our Nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States.  The American people deserve a Federal Government that puts their interests first and a Government that understands its sacred obligation to prioritize the safety, security, and financial and economic well-being of Americans.

This order ensures that the Federal Government protects the American people by faithfully executing the immigration laws of the United States.

SECURING OUR BORDERS

Section 1.  Purpose.  Over the last 4 years, the United States has endured a large-scale invasion at an unprecedented level.  Millions of illegal aliens from nations and regions all around the world successfully entered the United States where they are now residing, including potential terrorists, foreign spies, members of cartels, gangs, and violent transnational criminal organizations, and other hostile actors with malicious intent.

Deadly narcotics and other illicit materials have flowed across the border while agents and officers spend their limited resources processing illegal aliens for release into the United States.  These catch-and-release policies undermine the rule of law and our sovereignty, create substantial risks to public safety and security, and divert critical resources away from stopping the entry of contraband and fugitives into the United States.  

We have limited information on the precise whereabouts of a great number of these illegal aliens who have entered the United States over the last 4 years.

This cannot stand.  A nation without borders is not a nation, and the Federal Government must act with urgency and strength to end the threats posed by an unsecured border.

REALIGNING THE UNITED STATES REFUGEE ADMISSIONS PROGRAM

Section 1.  Purpose.  Over the last 4 years, the United States has been inundated with record levels of migration, including through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).  Cities and small towns alike, from Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Ohio, to Whitewater, Wisconsin, have seen significant influxes of migrants.  Even major urban centers such as New York City, Chicago, and Denver have sought Federal aid to manage the burden of new arrivals.  Some jurisdictions, like New York and Massachusetts, have even recently declared states of emergency because of increased migration.

The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.  This order suspends the USRAP until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.

CLARIFYING THE MILITARY’S ROLE IN PROTECTING THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF THE UNITED STATES

Section 1.  Purpose.  (a)  As Chief Executive and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, I have no more solemn responsibility than protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the United States along our national borders.  The protection of a nation’s territorial integrity and national boundaries is paramount for its security.

(b)  The Armed Forces of the United States have played a long and well-established role in securing our borders against threats of invasion, against unlawful forays by foreign nationals into the United States, and against other transnational criminal activities that violate our laws and threaten the peace, harmony, and tranquility of the Nation.  These threats have taken a variety of forms over our Nation’s history, but the Armed Forces have consistently played an integral role in protecting the sovereignty of the United States.

(c)  Threats against our Nation’s sovereignty continue today, and it is essential that the Armed Forces staunchly continue to participate in the defense of our territorial integrity and sovereignty.  A National Emergency currently exists along the southern border of the United States.  Unchecked unlawful mass migration and the unimpeded flow of opiates across our borders continue to endanger the safety and security of the American people and encourage further lawlessness.  Accordingly, through this order, I am acting in accordance with my solemn duty to protect and defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the United States along our national borders.

DEI

ENDING RADICAL AND WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT DEI PROGRAMS AND PREFERENCING

Section 1.  Purpose and Policy.  The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military.  This was a concerted effort stemming from President Biden’s first day in office, when he issued Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.”

Pursuant to Executive Order 13985 and follow-on orders, nearly every Federal agency and entity submitted “Equity Action Plans” to detail the ways that they have furthered DEIs infiltration of the Federal Government.  The public release of these plans demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination.  That ends today.  Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great.

DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Section 1.  Purpose.  Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers.  This is wrong.  Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.  The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.  Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.

This unhealthy road is paved by an ongoing and purposeful attack against the ordinary and longstanding use and understanding of biological and scientific terms, replacing the immutable biological reality of sex with an internal, fluid, and subjective sense of self unmoored from biological facts.  Invalidating the true and biological category of “woman” improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.

Accordingly, my Administration will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male. 

Government

RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CAREER SENIOR EXECUTIVES

Career Senior Executive Service (SES) officials are charged to “ensure that the executive management of the Government of the United States is responsive to the needs, policies, and goals of the Nation and otherwise is of the highest quality,” as required by section 3131 of title 5, United States Code.  SES officials have enormous influence over the functioning of the Federal Government, and thus the well-being of hundreds of millions of Americans.  

As the Constitution makes clear, and as the Supreme Court of the United States has reaffirmed, “the ‘executive Power’ — all of it — is ‘vested in a President,’ who must ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’”  Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 591 U.S. 197, 203 (2020).  “Because no single person could fulfill that responsibility alone, the Framers expected that the President would rely on subordinate officers for assistance.”  Id. at 203–04.  

The President’s power to remove subordinates is a core part of the Executive power vested by Article II of the Constitution and is necessary for the President to perform his duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”  Because SES officials wield significant governmental authority, they must serve at the pleasure of the President. 

Only that chain of responsibility ensures that SES officials are properly accountable to the President and the American people.  If career SES officials fail to faithfully fulfill their duties to advance the needs, policies, and goals of the United States, the President must be able to rectify the situation and ensure that the entire Executive Branch faithfully executes the law.  For instance, SES officials who engage in unauthorized disclosure of Executive Branch deliberations, violate the constitutional rights of Americans, refuse to implement policy priorities, or perform their duties inefficiently or negligently should be held accountable. 

RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY TO POLICY-INFLUENCING
POSITIONS WITHIN THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE

Section 1.  Purpose.  Article II of the United States Constitution vests the President with the sole and exclusive authority over the executive branch, including the authority to manage the Federal workforce to ensure effective execution of Federal law.  A critical aspect of this executive function is the responsibility to maintain professionalism and accountability within the civil service.  This accountability is sorely lacking today.  Only 41 percent of civil service supervisors are confident that they can remove an employee who engaged in insubordination or serious misconduct.  Even fewer supervisors –- 26 percent — are confident that they can remove an employee for poor performance.

Accountability is essential for all Federal employees, but it is especially important for those who are in policy-influencing positions.  These personnel are entrusted to shape and implement actions that have a significant impact on all Americans.  Any power they have is delegated by the President, and they must be accountable to the President, who is the only member of the executive branch, other than the Vice President, elected and directly accountable to the American people.  In recent years, however, there have been numerous and well-documented cases of career Federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership.  Principles of good administration, therefore, necessitate action to restore accountability to the career civil service, beginning with positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.

RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ENDING FEDERAL CENSORSHIP

Section 1.  Purpose.  The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference.  Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve.  Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.  Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/news/

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with , ,

Former top bureaucrat calls for major overhaul of the federal government

2025/01/21 Leave a comment

Wernick is likely the clerk with the most active public role in contributing to debate and discussion regarding government and the need for serious public sector reform. But getting political backing for such reform, given lengthy and contentious discussions with no political benefits within a normal mandate, is virtually impossible.

Those of us who remember the Universal Classification System (UCS) in the 90s will remember the extensive job description rewrites and related efforts, and its abandonment given its unworkability and likely political questioning.

This excerpt focusses on the large number of executives and related levels (of note, the percentage of EX of total public servants has not increased as dramatically as stated in the article: from 2.6 percent in 2008 to 3.0 percent in 2023, and largely flat under the Liberal government):

…Another issue is the expanding number of executives, which has outpaced the growth of the unionized workforce over the last 15 years. There are now over 9,000 executives across five levels, with about 80 deputy ministers above them, ranked by four levels. 

Over time, the executive layer has become thicker with the proliferation of new “half-step” positions, such as senior and associate assistant deputy ministers—a pattern seen across other executive levels, as well. 

This thickening of the executive ranks raises significant questions. Are these appointments narrowing the scope and responsibility of executive roles, or are they necessary due to the increased pace and volume of work? 

Some argue that the proliferation of these positions contributes to high turnover, with many not staying in jobs long enough to learn the ropes, or be accountable for decisions under their watch.  

Additionally, some of the movement stems from using promotions to offer higher pay to keep or attract talent. 

As clerk, Wernick pushed to restructure the executive ranks and overhaul their compensation, but never gained political backing after the Phoenix fiasco. He suggests reducing the five executive levels to three: senior, middle, and junior. This would require a review of the need and scope of each position, potentially taking three years and offering buyouts to those displaced. 

Previously, the most discussed option was collapsing the five levels into three: merging EX-4 and EX-5, as well as EX-1 and EX-2, while keeping EX-3 intact.  

The executive ranks tend to be dominated by policy experts, and Wernick argues more weight should be given to those with skills and experience in operations and service.  

One possible solution is to create a separate track that would allow specialists in fields like IT or data to be promoted for those skills without having to move into management. This would likely mean raising salaries for the lowest tier of executives to make these jobs more appealing to executives while also rewarding specialists for their expertise.  

Source: Former top bureaucrat calls for major overhaul of the federal government

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Canada’s plan to reduce immigration levels leaves newcomer organizations scrambling with ‘off-the-cliff’ funding cuts

2025/01/21 Leave a comment

Reduced levels means reduced demand for services, so it should not come as a complete surprise to the settlement sector:

Newcomer Oleksandr Krestych and his wife Olena have been taking English classes full-time while working full-time since they arrived from Ukraine in 2022.

The couple — him an orthopedic surgeon and her a dermatologist — know learning the language is key to their success in Canada. They’ve made progress, moving from basic English courses that helped navigate day-to-day life to now focusing on language training for employment and professional communication. 

Every weekday, they attend classes at Enhanced English Skills for Employment in Winnipeg from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. before heading to a 3:30-to-11:30 p.m. job assembling fibre-optic cables in a factory.

“It’s hard and tiring,” said Krestych, 50. “But it helps improve our English so we can get better jobs and improve our life.”

However, after their last class at the end of this month, the couple must find another school — if they can find one with available spots.

Enhanced English Skills for Employment has been informed its current Immigration Department funding agreement, worth $650,000 a year, will not be renewed when it ends on March 31.

Across Canada, excluding Quebec, the Immigration Department is axing funding to organizations that assist newcomers with settlement and integration through employment-related services, language training and community support programs.

The cuts follow the reduction in immigration targets announced by Immigration Minister Marc Miller in October, which aims to welcome 395,000 new permanent residents in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027 — a 20 per cent drop from 485,000 last year.

The Immigration Department is also reducing the new funding cycle from five to three years, making long-term planning harder for funded agencies. Additionally, it will only continue funding English classes beyond level 4 of the Canadian Language Benchmark until September 2026.

“With funding being tied to the number of past arrivals and future admissions, the funding for settlement services has also been readjusted downward, at first by a small amount in 2025-26 and then further in the following fiscal years,” it told the Star in an email.

Funding allocated for settlement services outside of Quebec will drop from about $1.17B in 2024-25 and $1.12B in 2025-26, it said, adding that funding decisions are based on the number of newcomers expected, the needs for those accessing services, relationships with partner organizations and available resources.

The immigrant settlement sector said it’s been caught off guard by the “off-the-cliff” cuts that were made without consultation and enough time to wind down programs to minimize impacts on clients and staff, most of whom are immigrant women from racialized communities.

“While the funding cuts happened, the folks these agencies are seeing now are not going away,” said Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, which has more than 240 member organizations.

“We don’t anticipate a reduction in service demand, but we certainly will see a reduction in services available.”

Kathryn Friesen, executive of the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies, warns that recent cuts to settlement services funding will leave many newcomers vulnerable amid an economic slowdown and affordability crisis.

Douglas said her member organizations in Ontario are expected to see a modest one per cent reduction in federal settlement funding for 2025 and up to 20 per cent next year. However, the Toronto District School Board is set to lose a third of its federal funding for newcomer language training, closing five learning sites as of March 31 and reducing its program capacity from 2,485 to 1,800 learners. Its enhanced language training programs will be phased out over two years.

Due to the exponential immigration growth following the pandemic, including newcomers from Afghanistan and Ukraine, some service providers have already been struggling with waiting lists for programs, especially in language training.

The Star has learned that Western provinces are hardest hit, though provincial bodies representing the settlement sector are still trying to calculate the extent and impacts of the cuts. Some service providers are desperately trying to find alternative funding sources while making plans to move clients to unaffected agencies.  

In B.C., more than 20 organizations have been completely defunded, with others facing funding reduction ranging from 15 per cent to 75 per cent. In Alberta, some groups faced cuts as deep as 35 per cent. In Manitoba, at least 12 agencies have lost their entire funding.

Kathryn Friesen, executive director of the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies, said the cuts could not have come at a worse time, as recent newcomers are the most vulnerable to the current affordability crisis, soft job market and economic slowdown.

“It’s a small investment to help people upon arrival reach success a lot sooner than if they’re having to go it alone to navigate so many of the systems that they have to navigate,” said Friesen, whose umbrella group has 60 organizational members.

And newcomers’ journeys are not linear, and they may access supports at different stages of their settlement. 

Karen Sawatzky, executive director of the Hecate Strait Employment Development Society, expresses frustration over losing funding after a decade of service, leaving her remote community in Prince Rupert without crucial settlement support.

“Settlement services continue to be essential to those already here,” said Katie Crocker, CEO of the Affiliations of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC, in a statement. The group is made up of 94 member organizations.

Newcomers “depend on settlement supports to integrate and thrive in their communities. The settlement and integration sector’s specialized and crucial support better equips immigrants to contribute to Canada’s social and economic growth, enriching communities across the country.”

Both large and small agencies are impacted by the cuts. In B.C., for example, the Vancouver Community College has lost its entire $4 million yearly funding for language training for 2,400 students; the Hecate Strait Employment Development Society will have its entire $150,000 support axed.

The latter serves newcomers in remote Prince Rupert, 1,500 kilometres north of Vancouver, and the agency will have to send clients to organizations in Terrace, which is at least 90 minutes away by car.

“We have yet to sit down with someone at immigration and have them tell me why they declined us funding after providing these services for 10 years,” said its executive director Karen Sawatzky.

“They have not given us a clear (transition) plan. I’ve been in touch informally with the other service providers to help each other.” 

At Winnipeg’s Enhanced Language Skills for Employment, its executive director Louise Giesbrecht has to let go of six language instructors and some administration staff. She is knocking on the doors of the province and charitable foundations to fill the impossible gap. 

While her biggest concern is where to send current students and the 400 on the waiting list, she is busy trying to find the money for staff’s accrued vacation pay and closing costs on things such as shedding documents to comply with client privacy terms, emptying offices and getting rid of furniture.

Source: Canada’s plan to reduce immigration levels leaves newcomer organizations scrambling with ‘off-the-cliff’ funding cuts

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Birthright Citizenship Defined America. Trump Wants to Redefine It.

2025/01/20 Leave a comment

Good long and informative read:

When the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, it defined the United States nearly as deeply as the nation’s founding documents. “It’s certainly the most important change in the Constitution since the Bill of Rights,” the historian Eric Foner told me.

The amendment grants citizenship to almost everyone born inside the country — a rare policy for an advanced economy in the 21st century. Among the 20 most developed countries in the world, only Canada and the United States allocate citizenship using the legal principle of jus soli, the right of soil.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to overturn territorial birthright citizenship. “We’re going to have to get it changed,” he told NBC News during his first extended interview after winning the election in November. “We’re going to end that because it’s ridiculous.”

Trump has said that he will release an executive order denying birthright citizenship to the children of “illegal aliens” on the first day that he takes office. Members of his team have told The New York Times that his administration will not issue passports and Social Security cards to children born to undocumented parents. These moves will inevitably be challenged in court, where the fate of birthright citizenship is likely to be decided.

Efforts to end birthright citizenship for the children of unauthorized migrants date back more than four decades, but Trump’s return will most likely present one of the greatest challenges in the 14th Amendment’s 157-year history. Legal arguments that were once regarded as fringe have moved to the mainstream. The Supreme Court has proved itself willing to break with historical precedent in cases involving other conservative priorities, like abortion and presidential immunity. And Trump, who campaigned on the idea of restricting birthright citizenship, is entering office with a majority of the vote….

Source: Birthright Citizenship Defined America. Trump Wants to Redefine It.

Filed under Birthright Citizenship, Citizenship Tagged with , ,

Ahead of Day 1, Trump’s Team Works to Temper Expectations on Immigration

2025/01/20 Leave a comment

Reality. But still expect degree of “shock and awe.” Risks disappointing base and perhaps reducing some anxiety given contrast between rhetoric and action:

President-elect Donald J. Trump vowed throughout his campaign to carry out the “largest deportation program in American history,” including a “Day 1” effort to send millions of immigrants “back home where they belong,” and putting “no price tag” on the effort.

But as he transitions from the campaign to the White House, Mr. Trump’s team is encountering a harsh reality of immigration policy: Easier said than done.

In public remarks and private conversations with members of Congress, Mr. Trump’s immigration team has conceded that his aspirations for mass deportations will be both costly and time-consuming.

Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda and his pick to be deputy chief of staff, met with congressional Republicans on Wednesday for a “level setting” of expectations and needs for immigration enforcement, according to a congressional member who participated in the meeting.

Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s pick to oversee the deportations, has told Republicans to expect a phased approach that first prioritizes those with a criminal record, rather than a national sweep of any immigrant with uncertain or contested legal status. And he has made clear there is, indeed, a price tag for the efforts, saying they will need Congress to approve billions of additional dollars to carry them out.

That is a tall order on Capitol Hill, where Republicans hold slim majorities and Democrats are all but certain to oppose the funding of a mass deportation effort. Some lawmakers expect that after an initial wave of deportations of those easiest to remove, Mr. Trump will spend the rest of his time in office haggling with Congress over money for more.

“Congress needs to fund this deportation operation,” Mr. Homan told Fox Business in December. “It’s going to be expensive, and everybody is focused on how expensive it’s gonna be.”

Mr. Trump will still find ways to call attention to his early efforts to crack down, such as spotlighting deportations in Democratic-led cities or work site raids in the first days of his presidency. While appearing on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast in November, Mr. Homan said the public should expect immigration action that creates “shock and awe.”…

Source: Ahead of Day 1, Trump’s Team Works to Temper Expectations on Immigration

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

As border anxiety mounts, ads for smugglers in Canada helping migrants illegally cross into U.S. flourish on social media

2025/01/20 Leave a comment

Inevitable:

…“Canada to USA. Safe Reach,” the Facebook post says. “No police. Low price. Payment after reach.”

“Canada to USA. Safe Game. Cheapest in Market. 100-per-cent guarantee,” reads a post on Instagram.

Smugglers offering to help people cross the border illegally into the United States are openly advertising their services on social media. The Globe and Mail has found multiple posts from people smugglers who are promoting “safe” routes to the United States, including from Montreal and British Columbia, with some claiming there will be no police involvement or checkpoints.

Some advertisements call their work “dunki” or “donkey” services, with payment due upon arrival. The price, which is not always stated, is in one case listed as $3,500 for same-day service from Canada to the U.S., with “payment after reach.”

Other ads also tout smuggling services over the U.S.’s southern border, as well as to and from other countries….

Source: As border anxiety mounts, ads for smugglers in Canada helping migrants illegally cross into U.S. flourish on social media

Filed under Immigration, Social Media Tagged with ,

McWhorter: How Hollywood’s Awards Season Could Change the World (a Little)

2025/01/20 Leave a comment

Always interesting takes:

Hollywood’s awards shows are always closely scrutinized for signs of who’s up and who’s down, what’s in and what’s out. Lately they have also offered a clue about a trend that has nothing to do with film production or red carpet gowns. It’s about grammar. Amid all the razzle-dazzle, you may have missed the fact that last year the Golden Globes went where the Screen Actors Guild had previously led: They lauded not actors and actresses (lead, supporting or otherwise) but rather “female actors” and “male actors.”

After so many years and so many ceremonies, that was a real change for the industry, but it emerged from a long history. At least as far back as the 1980s, I’d heard calls to eliminate the use of female-marked terms such as “heroine,” “goddess,” “waitress” and “chairwoman” — and, yes, “actress.” (I for some reason have never truly internalized “flight attendant” over “stewardess,” and still have to remind myself to make the substitution.)

Such terms can seem to imply that the women who occupy these roles are somehow essentially different from — and perhaps lesser than — the men who do. Appending a female suffix positions the male version as the default, and makes the female word a mere version or variation of it.

The call to use “actor,” “hero,” “god” and “chair” to refer to women as well as men emerges from a belief that the words we use can shape our thoughts. That view was put forth most influentially by the linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1930s. The idea is that de-gendering our terms is a powerful gesture, a political act that asserts women’s equality and retrains our cultural assumptions.

A similar impulse has guided efforts to popularize inclusive language about race and gender identity or any number of other sensitive subjects. As those efforts proliferated in recent years, the consensus on what was inclusive and what was outdated seemed to shift faster and faster. It sometimes felt as if the lexical earth was shifting under our feet almost by the week — and not always for clear purpose.

Lately the tide seems to be turning against those attempts to engineer how people speak. In general, I’m glad about that. But de-gendering terms is a worthwhile endeavor that deserves an exemption from our impatience.

The problem with replacing older terms with newer, allegedly more sensitive ones is that a replacement term inevitably takes on the same negative associations that the old term had accreted. The psychologist Steven Pinker calls it the euphemism treadmill. Think of the procession from “crippled” to “handicapped” to “disabled” to “differently abled,” changes undertaken to avoid stigmatizing the people the term refers to. The constant renewal suggests that the effort has only had fitful success.

The introduction of a new term may suggest new ways of thinking, at least for some, and for a spell. But covering a hole in the roof with construction paper keeps the wind out, too, or at least some of it, and for a spell. It’s not actually a solution. The fashion of late to refer to the “unhoused” rather than the “homeless” is a useful example. “Homeless” began as a well-intended replacement of words like “bum” and “bag lady.” However, over time, the same dismissive associations those old terms engendered shifted over to “homeless person.” You can be sure that if “unhoused” becomes the default, it will need replacement in a generation or so. Truly addressing the homelessness (houselessness?) epidemic would be a much more meaningful approach to the problem than changing what we call it, and I suspect the “unhoused” would say the same.

De-gendering, however, is a different case. Unlike creating euphemisms, folding two words into one does not present a new model subject to obsolescence. “She’s an actor” simply phases out “actress” and sends it on its way, along with Studebakers, Koogle peanut butter and Red Skelton. It creates no new word poised to inherit the potentially dismissive air that “actress” implied.

Of course, changing words will hardly eliminate sexist bias. And I can’t help chuckling to recall one person I knew who years ago earnestly insisted on calling a Walkman a “Walkperson.” But to the extent that this kind of language change really can play some part in changing habits of mind, let’s form the new habit and pass it on to our kids.

Source: How Hollywood’s Awards Season Could Change the World (a Little)

Filed under gender, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

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