an alliance of university, community, and government partners dedicated to fostering welcoming communities and promoting the integration of immigrants and minorities across Canada
The Media Roundup provides links to recent and archived articles, in both English and French, on immigration and diversity appearing in the national and local news. Some international content is also included. Articles are updated weekly.
Toronto Star – Mysterious Man in Canadian Jail is Mbuyisa Makhubu, says Brother of Anti-Apartheid Icon
Mbuyisa was just 18 during the 1976 Soweto uprising in South Africa when he was photographed carrying the dying Hector Pieterson, a 13-year-old shot by police on June 16 that year. The image, which captured the apartheid government’s brutality against the African majority population, became a symbol of resistance and June 16 has since been marked as National Youth Day. […] Last year, the Star learned from a source that Canada Border Services Agency had assigned an investigator to try to determine the identity of a detainee, who entered the country in 1988 under the name of Victor Vinnetou and has been detained since 2004. […] However, the South African arts and culture department issued a public statement in June to local media saying officials are still working on verifying the detained man’s identity. The department “is in the process of clarifying the situation regarding DNA tests done on a man currently in Canada that some maintain could be Mbuyisa Makhubu,” the government ministry was quoted in the Johannesburg-based City Press.
24 Hours Vancouver – Transit Police Defend Immigration Snooping
More than once every week, a Transit Police fare evasion check turns into a Canada Border Services Agency immigration-status investigation, according to the force. But that’s an expected number, according to Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan, given how the authority stopped 25,000 people last year on fare evasion checks. She said 328 cases resulted in some form of communication with the CBSA in 2013, but only 62 actually proceeded as immigration-status investigation. Immigration and refugee lawyer Laura Best said “the vast majority, if not all of the referrals that Transit Police are making to the CBSA, are for paying the wrong fare or fare evasion.” She said many are indeed in Canada without status, but the reasons are numerous.
Timmins Press – New Central Location to Assist New Canadians
The Timmins and District Multicultural Centre has a new home in the city’s downtown core. Officials and political dignitaries officially opened the centre at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday at its new location at the Pine Street Plaza. Shaye Belanger, settlement worker and volunteer co-ordinator with the centre, said the new downtown location will make it easier for people to find the centre. She said it also provides them with the opportunity to expand their services. The centre, which originally opened three years ago on Elm Street North, helps immigrants with documents, offers translation and settlement services such as providing information on where to go to find certain things within the community. The centre was founded, through involvement from the Timmins Economic Development Corporation, with the aim of attracting skilled workers from other countries to the region. The centre provides services across a broad geographic region. The Timmins office is a satellite to the one in North Bay.
Calgary Herald – Employment Minister Jason Kenney Considers Local Exemptions to Temporary Foreign Worker Program
Employment Minister Jason Kenney said Friday he’s willing to consider “local exemptions” to his recent overhaul of the temporary foreign worker program. Kenney said he’ll consider changes in specific areas with very low levels of unemployment in regions with a higher level. But Kenney made it clear he won’t compromise on the core goal of his controversial overhaul to the program: making sure employers don’t use it as a cheap source of labour when they could be hiring unemployed Canadians. “I did reiterate that these important changes are designed to ensure that Canadians always come first in our job market and that the temporary foreign worker program is only a last, limited and temporary resort,” Kenney said in Charlottetown after a meeting with provincial labour ministers. Kenney said that after listening to the concerns of the provinces and territories, he is taking the grievances seriously.
CBC – Refugee Board Approves Claimants Labelled “Bogus” by Ottawa
The federal government says refugees from a list of “safe” countries are “bogus” and don’t deserve health care, yet hundreds of these claimants have been approved as legitimate refugees, including dozens from the United States. Figures provided by the Immigration and Refugee Board to CBC News show 47 claimants from the U.S. have been approved since 2007, even though the U.S. is on a list of “Designated Countries of Origin” that are deemed by Canada to respect human rights and offer state protection — and therefore don’t produce what Canada would recognize as refugees. A small number of claimants from other “safe” countries, such as Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden have also been approved — joining hundreds more from Mexico, Hungary and countries that have recently been added the DCO list.
Radio-Canada – Travailleurs étrangers temporaires : Ottawa va trop loin, dit l’Ouest
Les provinces et territoires de l’Ouest ont un besoin pressant de main-d’oeuvre qualifiée, et la récente réforme du Programme des travailleurs étrangers temporaires du gouvernement fédéral « va trop loin ». C’est ce qu’a déclaré, jeudi, le premier ministre par intérim de l’Alberta, Dave Hancock, lors d’une rencontre des leaders politiques de l’ouest du pays tenue à Iqaluit, dans le Nunavut. Dans leur communiqué conjoint diffusé à la fin de leur rencontre, les leaders ont adressé des reproches à Ottawa au sujet des travailleurs temporaires. Selon eux, limiter les possibilités d’embauche de travailleurs étrangers pour pallier le manque de main-d’oeuvre punira injustement les employeurs responsables de l’Ouest, particulièrement ceux des petites communautés éloignées où les travailleurs canadiens se font rares.
