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.
CTV News – Tim Hudak Wants to Make Ontario “Best Place” for New Canadians
Speaking at a town hall meeting in east-end Toronto, Hudak said the Liberal government has been “dramatically” underutilizing the provincial nominee program, which allows provinces to recruit newcomers. […] The Liberals, however, said they’ve worked hard to raise targets under the program over the past few years, and said the Harper government was to blame for allocating Ontario a far smaller share than some other provinces. […] In making his pitch to an audience at a Chinese cultural centre, Hudak used skilled international students in particular as an example of the kind of new immigrant he’d like to have stay on and build a life in Ontario. Yet Hudak sidestepped a question about whether he’d lobby his Conservative federal cousins to alter an upcoming change to citizenship laws that would do away with a provision that eased the path to citizenship for those who live in the country before becoming permanent residents — a rule that benefited foreign students.
Edmonton Journal – Temporary Foreign Workers Should be Allowed to Move Here, Labour Leader Says
Temporary foreign workers should be allowed to immigrate to Canada work hard and apply for citizenship the way generations of immigrants did before them, labour leader Gil McGowan says. The federal government’s temporary foreign workers program has essentially “privatized immigration” and exploited these workers, the head of the Alberta Federation of Labour says. […] They’ve created a program that essentially privatizes immigration and allows employers to make a decision about who to bring into the country and to pay for them,” McGowan told about 200 temporary foreign workers during a community forum on the weekend hosted by Migrante Alberta, a migrant workers advocacy group. Rachel Notley, the provincial New Democrats labour critic, and an aide to Edmonton NDP MP Linda Duncan who also spoke at the forum, echoed the call for the federal government to scrap the temporary foreign worker program and use immigration to fill gaps in the labour market.
Toronto Star – Why Canada Rejected these Typhoon Haiyan Victims
Sharon Creer left her storm-ravaged town in the Philippines in January expecting that her husband and children would soon follow. The Toronto nanny had flown home to be with her surviving family members after Typhoon Haiyan blasted through the country’s eastern islands on Nov. 8, killing more than 6,000 people, including her 64-year-old mother, two aunts and an uncle. When the Canadian government announced it would fast-track visa applications from Filipinos “significantly and personally affected” by the typhoon, Creer eagerly applied for her husband and children, whose sponsorship was already in progress. Creer waited nearly five months for a response, which finally came on May 9. They were rejected. […] The visa officer who worked on the family’s case “was not satisfied that they were significantly affected by Typhoon Haiyan such that they qualified for facilitative measures,” a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada told the Star.
Radio-Canada – Travailleurs étrangers : Un ministre albertain et un chef syndical d’accord
Le ministre du Travail de l’Alberta et un chef syndical de la province se sont retrouvés dans la position inhabituelle d’être partiellement d’accord, à l’occasion d’un forum organisé à Edmonton sur les travailleurs étrangers temporaires. Les deux hommes disent vouloir un système qui permettra aux travailleurs de devenir des résidents permanents. Lors du forum, le président de la Fédération du Travail de l’Alberta, Gil McGowan, a raconté avoir écrit au ministre fédéral de l’Immigration, Jason Kenney, pour lui demander que tous les travailleurs étrangers temporaires se trouvant actuellement au Canada puissent y demeurer. Pendant ce temps, le ministre du Travail et de l’Emploi, Thomas Lukaszuk, a confié qu’il souhaitait voir naître un programme amélioré grâce auquel les travailleurs pourraient devenir des résidants permanents.
Guardian – Ukip’s Nigel Farage Defends Romanian “Criminals” Comment
Nigel Farage has attempted to defend his controversial remarks that he would be concerned if a group of Romanians were to move in next door to him. The statement published on the Ukip website comes a day after Farage took part in a heated radio interview in which he was accused of running a divisive and racist organisation. In the live interview with LBC radio on Friday, the Ukip leader claimed that people know which foreigners make good neighbours as he struggled to square his opposition to European immigration with having a German wife. Farage said he stood by his claim that Romanians were more likely to be criminals and denied that they were racist.
Calgary Herald – Banff Worried About Foreign Worker Moratorium as Tourist Season Looms
In Banff, where service industry jobs are the lifeblood of the local economy, many say their community deserves to be treated as a special case. Town councillor Stavros Karlos, who co-owns another local restaurant that has used temporary foreign workers, said Banff has long depended on immigrant or foreign labour. The town — which has a Parks Canada-imposed population cap of 8,000 permanent residents — simply doesn’t have enough locals to staff all of its hotels and restaurants. […] Thirty per cent of Banff’s population is non-Canadian, and there are an estimated 1,000 temporary foreign workers employed in the community right now, Karlos said. […] Last week, Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen went to Ottawa to voice the community’s concerns to the federal government.
