Working site on citizenship and multiculturalism issues.
2013/08/22 Leave a comment
For my American readers interested in the process US Senator Cruz has to go through to renounce his Canadian citizenship, this article will be helpful. And yes, it takes time, not just a speech or statement.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz may have to wait 8 months to stop being Canadian – The Globe and Mail.
2013/08/17 Leave a comment
Good reminder of some of the broader issues and objectives around immigration by Natalie Brender, along with the concomitant need for refugee and family class advocates to develop more rigorous reasoning and rationales.
Just saying that these categories are important and valuable is not enough. After all, even some of the economic arguments that everyone ‘accepts’ have also been criticized by some as simplistic (i.e., Collacott, Paquet) or wrong.
It should be possible for advocates for more refugees and family class to argue more convincingly on the comparative benefits between economic, family class and refugees, than stating what they believe to be an article of faith.
Immigration policy wasn’t always about economics alone: Brender | Toronto Star.
2013/08/12 Leave a comment
Most countries with radicalization problems have some form of these programs. They are relatively low-cost and provide insights to those who have become radicalized, in addition to helping some get out of radicalization ideology.
The government decision last fall to cancel part-time chaplain contracts, largely impacting Muslim Imams, can only be characterized as bizarre, given that radicalization, while not large-scale, is nevertheless an issue in Canada.
Penny wise but pound foolish. Given Canada’s multicultural reality, chaplains should the diversity of the prison population (72 full-time Christian chaplains compared to 2 full-time Muslim chaplains seems unbalanced to say the least).
Is Canada doing enough to ‘de-radicalize’ convicted terrorists? | Toronto Star.
2013/08/10 3 Comments
More information on birth tourism in Canada following the release of Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s recent consultations with Canadians on the issue, and in the context of the government considering changes to the current policy of granting citizenship automatically to people born in Canada.
While the press account still lacks hard numbers in terms of percentage of births, the range of comments and anecdotes suggests that the numbers are largely than expected, with the practice extending to more communities.
Still find it surprising, given the sophistication of some of our provincial medicare systems, that no harder data available. After all, we know the total number of births (377,636 in 2011), government medicare billing systems should be able to isolate those births paid by provincial plans, and provincial public servants should be able to provide some analysis behind the different categories of births not paid by medicare (e.g., births within the 3 month waiting period for provincial medicare coverage).
2013/08/10 Leave a comment
More comment from Kady O’Malley further to the press release yesterday.
How many multiculturalism ministers does Canada need? – Inside Politics.
2013/08/09 Leave a comment
Interesting developments in the ongoing Quebec debate over the need and form of a charter of Quebec values. Main point of the critics: a dividing rather than uniting strategy for Quebec society, and that most values are already captured in the Charter, Quebec laws and regulations.
The Quebec Liberal Party taking a much stronger line that previous liberal governments, where the tendency was to blow with the wind.
Charte des valeurs québécoises: le PLQ pourrait s’y opposer | Martin Ouellet | Politique québécoise.
2013/08/08 Leave a comment
Good discussion of some of the issues around the monarchy and suggestions for more written clarity regarding the power of the prime minister in relation to the legislature. Other governments have done so without undermining the role of the monarchy; and the article also lists a number of other options that could go further.
Not likely to happen given any debate would be divisive but good to have a range of options laid out and discussed.
Monarchy’s role in government: Most Canadians want fixes, but how? – The Globe and Mail.
2013/08/07 Leave a comment
Good piece by Robert Sibley on the history and the people that shaped Canada’s becoming independent in the 20s and 30s. And a strong comment on how much the role of the public service may have changed since then.
That’s the kind of visionary counsel — backbone stiffening, if you will — Canadians could once expect from their public servants. You have to wonder, given the current dysfunctional relationship between the government and the public service, if those days are long past, and, if so, how that might affect the country’s future.
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2013/08/06 Leave a comment
Good to see a healthy debate on the legacy of Trudeau, given that so much writing has had elements of hagiography. Bob Plamondon’s recent The Truth About Trudeau provides a valuable counter-narrative that, like many counter-narratives, may try too hard to make its case. On the other side, Andrew Cohen, emphasizes the long-term impact of Trudeau’s achievements, particularly the Constitution and the Charter, and his role, sometimes divisive, in trying to keep the country together.
Like all leaders with a legacy of achievement, views and interpretations will differ, but if Trudeau doesn’t ‘haunt us still,’ his legacy continues to shape the country, in big and small ways.
Even the Conservative government, opposed to much of the Trudeau legacy, has to live within it, sometimes with grace (e.g., the 2008 apology to aboriginal Canadians), sometimes churlishly (e.g., refusing to publicly commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Charter). And the reference to multiculturalism in the Charter (the Canadian ‘brand’) has equally sticking power despite efforts to invoke pluralism as an alternative.
2013/08/02 Leave a comment
A good overview putting some of the critiques in a broader context. Yes, the changes have been significant and, in many cases overdue, and a number of others less defensible. But his great political skill has been able to operate at two levels at the same time: developing and encouraging support among the numerous ethnic communities in Canada while pursuing some major policy changes that make immigration more restrictive for non-economic immigrants.
One of my own ‘tests’ of how immigration and the related issues of citizenship and multiculturalism are perceived in a country is the presence or absence of strong anti-immigration lobbies or political parties. While we have a range of critics of immigration policies, naturally enough, we have no major organized opposition to Canada as an immigrant-based country.
All Canadian political parties are engaged with immigrants and new Canadians, with any wedge politics to increase support among ethnic communities, not to create a split with the ‘mainstream’.
The dynamic in Quebec is different, and more influenced by European debates and tensions.
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Multicultural Meanderings 