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 – Law Society Must Protect Refugees from Bad Lawyers
It is impossible to overstate the importance of legal representation for refugees who arrive in this country. They have no understanding of the refugee determination procedures. Many come from places where they have no experience of having their rights taken seriously. Some languages, I have learned, do not even have a word for “rights.” Refugees depend on their lawyer to shepherd them through a process that is obscure even to most Canadians. When a lawyer does not prepare a refugee for a hearing, when he or she does not submit evidence given by a refugee, when he or she does not even appear at a hearing, the refugee’s claim is seriously compromised and all appeals after that are also jeopardized. The courts of appeal and politicians who are a last hope of justice tend to assume that the refugee has been through a fair legal process. However, a fair system depends on fair and experienced judges or adjudicators, on honest and competent lawyers, on effective oversight of the conduct of both the lawyers, adjudicators and judges.
Toronto Star – Rally Held to Free Roma Girl and Family who have Taken Sanctuary in Church
More than 200 people protested in front of Immigration Minister Chris Alexander’s Ajax office Friday to give a voice to a 6-year-old Roma girl who has lived in sanctuary in a church for almost three years. The Free Lulu Multifaith Coalition delivered a 40,000-name petition in six cartons and demanded the minister issue temporary resident permits to Viktoria Pusuma and her parents, Jozsef and Timea, so the family can participate in the professional disciplinary hearing against their lawyer. The Pusumas are among 18 individuals and families who complained to the Law Society of Upper Canada, accusing Toronto lawyer Viktor Hohots of professional misconduct that ultimately led to their failed asylum claims. […] The family, which has lived in sanctuary since 2011 after they were scheduled for deportation, claimed in their complaint that Hohots only met them for three minutes and failed to provide on time a video and letters to the refugee board that the family believed were crucial to their claim.
CBC – From China to Charlottetown : Immigration Boom Skips Rural P.E.I.
Over the past seven years an influx of thousands of immigrants has transformed Charlottetown, but left other areas of P.E.I. largely untouched. The population of the Island as whole is on the rise. The 3.2 per cent increase from 2006 to 2011 is the biggest in the region. But that growth has been concentrated around Charlottetown. The population increase for Charlottetown, Stratford and Cornwall for that period is almost exactly equal to the total growth for the province, meaning growth in other areas of the province is stagnant. Numbers from Statistics Canada confirm the trend’s connection to immigration. More than 9,000 immigrants have landed on P.E.I. since 2007, and only a few hundred of those settled in Kings and Prince counties.
Globe and Mail – 55 African Tree Planters Awarded $600,000 for Discrimination in B.C. Camp
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ruled the operators of a tree-planting business discriminated against African workers and has ordered the employer to pay more than $600,000 in damages. Tribunal member Norman Trerise says in his 114-page ruling that the owners of Khaira Enterprises Ltd. taunted and harassed the 55 workers with racial slurs and had a blatant disregard for employment standards. Trerise ruled all the workers experienced some form of adverse treatment from their employers, including lack of payment, hours of work, poor camp condition and other issues. The tree planters worked in a camp in Golden, in southeast B.C., in 2010, until it was shut down by the provincial Ministry of Forests, when the planters complained to ministry staff that they hadn’t had anything to eat for two days.
Radio-Canada – Aide aux immigrants : la FFCB a le droit d’offrir les services
Tandis que des associations communautaires cherchent toujours à s’asseoir avec la Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique (FFCB) pour mettre noir sur blanc le plan de soutien aux immigrants francophones, le ministère fédéral responsable confirme que la FFCB peut offrir elle-même les services. La Fédération, qui a obtenu près de 1,2 million de dollars pour ce que Citoyenneté et Immigration Canada (CIC) appelle « l’aide à l’établissement » des immigrants, compte utiliser ces fonds pour embaucher des agents et donner directement les services. Or, d’autres associations, comme la Boussole, veulent livrer cette aide à l’établissement des nouveaux arrivants et dénoncent ce qu’elles voient comme la mainmise du groupe les représentant sur leurs responsabilités historiques.
EU – France’s Sarkozy Calls for Two-Speed EU, Tighter Borders
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy weighed into the European Parliament election campaign on Thursday, calling for tighter controls on immigration and a two-speed Europe with a powerful Franco-German economic zone at its heart. The conservative former leader, who is widely expected to seek re-election in 2017, argued for a profound overhaul of EU institutions ahead of a May 25 European Parliament election in which the Eurosceptic National Front is currently tipped by polls to emerge as France’s leading party. […] In an editorial in Le Point weekly, he said Europe’s borderless Schengen travel zone should be suspended and revamped to prevent foreigners who enter the bloc from then shopping around for generous welfare benefits in any member state.
