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.
Radio-Canada – Tribunal : pas de discrimination contre les travailleurs étrangers
Le Tribunal des droits de la personne juge que la Loi sur les coroners de l’Ontario n’est pas discriminatoire envers les travailleurs agricoles venant de l’étranger. Une famille faisait valoir le contraire, puisqu’il n’y a pas systématiquement une enquête du coroner lorsqu’un travailleur étranger meurt sur une ferme. La loi ontarienne exige cependant des enquêtes pour les travailleurs de la construction et les mineurs chaque fois qu’il y a un décès au chantier ou dans une mine. La famille qui avait lancé la poursuite est celle de Ned Peart, un père de famille jamaïcain qui est mort sur une ferme de tabac dans le comté de Brant en 2002. Le Tribunal a expliqué que les travailleurs de la construction et les mineurs sont plus à risque et les enquêtes sur leur mort sont plus susceptibles de mener à des recommandations utiles.
L’expulsion menace les réfugiés, bien établis ou non
De récents changements dans la législation canadienne laissent planer la menace de voir des réfugiés expulsés du pays, et ce, même s’ils sont devenus résidents permanents, selon un rapport du Conseil canadien pour les réfugiés (CCR) publié mercredi. Ce spectre de la cessation, c’est-à-dire la perte de l’asile, sème un climat de peur parmi les réfugiés. Cette réalité se traduit par un sentiment d’insécurité, qui n’échappe pas aux résidents permanents. À la fin du mois de mars, pas moins de 148 demandes de cessation étaient en instance.
Edmonton Journal – Temporary Foreign Workers Left in Limbo by Moratorium
Thousands of temporary foreign workers already on the job in Canada and in the midst of renewing their work permits are left in limbo by the moratorium on the fast food industry imposed by Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. If the moratorium is not lifted within 90 days, most of these workers will be forced to leave the country in early July, even though their employers were in the process of applying to renew their work permit, Marco Luciano of Edmonton’s Migrante Alberta, an advocacy groups for temporary foreign workers, said Monday. While Kenney’s abrupt moratorium last week was aimed at stopping employers from bringing in new workers to restaurants, it suspended all applications from employers, including those applying to renew permits of workers already here. All labour market opinions were suspended. The workers are stranded “without status” — unable to move to other jobs, unable to send money home and facing the possibility they will have to leave the country, Lucianio, adding that the “long list of jobs” includes meat cutters, kitchen help and cooks.
CBC – Windsor’s Temporary Foreign Workers Doubled in 3 Years
Statistics show the number of temporary foreign workers employed in Windsor has more than doubled since 2009. The website for the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration shows 614 were employed in 2009. That number jumped to 1,550 in 2012, the last year for which data is available on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website. The increase puzzles Mike Moffatt, a business professor at Western University in London, Ont. Moffatt crunched the numbers of temporary foreign workers in southwestern Ontario. He found use of them is on the rise, not just in Windsor, but across the region. At the same time, Moffatt says there is really no need for them. Moffatt says part of the problem is that no one knows what these workers are doing in Windsor. He would like the federal government to release that information.
The Canadian Experience Class allows an individual to obtain Canadian PR if they have worked in Canada for ONE year out of the last three. After working, adapting and contributing to the Canadian work force, the individual can be particularly beneficial to Canadian society. The latest changes have declared that several occupations that were previously commonly applied for under the CEC are no longer eligible; cooks are one of them. […] In the same day, cooks received some good news when they were added as an eligible occupation for application under the Federal Skilled Trades (FST) Program. […] While these programs have altered the method of receiving permanent residency in Canada, new policy changes have been made to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, limiting immigration possibilities in all realms for those in the food service sector.
CityNews Toronto – Canadians Frantic for Live-In Caregivers Hope They’re Spared from Crackdown
The live-in caregiver sector is particularly nervous as Employment Minister Jason Kenney vows to further tighten the rules governing temporary foreign workers, a program originally conceived to address shortages of agricultural workers and live-in caregivers. There are genuine, serious shortages of live-in caregivers in Canada, said the head of the Association of Caregiver and Nanny Agencies Canada. Yet the Conservatives have already added so much red tape to the process of hiring from abroad that another round of rule changes could seriously affect Canadian families, said Manuela Gruber Hersch, an Austrian-born former nanny who worked for a Canadian family as a teenager 27 years ago before eventually becoming a Canadian citizen. “We need bodies because there simply aren’t enough Canadian live-in caregivers,” she said.
