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.
Advocacy groups have complained that the checkpoints unfairly targeted illegal immigrants, who cannot get driver’s licenses, ensnaring far more unlicensed drivers than drunken ones. And in March, the Los Angeles Police Department decided that it would no longer automatically impound the vehicles of drivers without licenses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/us/change-in-lapd-policy-has-immigrants-hoping-for-more.html?_r=1
Waving placards denouncing Ottawa’s plan to eliminate a lengthy immigration backlog, protesters in four foreign cities urged Canada not to repeat its discriminatory immigration past. In Hong Kong, organizers said about 80 affected immigration applicants — many travelling from inner Mainland China — staged a demonstration against the federal government’s plan to return the applications of 280,000 people in the queue. Similar protests were held Monday in Leeds, England, and Karachi, Pakistan. In India’s Chandigarh, 200 people attended a rally and candle-light vigil.
Greece opened its first purpose-built detention camp for undocumented migrants on the outskirts of the capital, Athens, on Monday, a week before a national election in which immigration has emerged as a key issue amid lingering recession and debt. Opinion surveys indicate that far-right extremists, who have campaigned strongly against migrants, currently draw five percent support. That would be enough to win them seats in parliament for the first time.
CIC Niagara Falls and the Backlog Reduction Office (BRO) Niagara Falls have moved to a new office at 4318 Portage Road, Niagara Falls, Ontario. The offices are moving to a new location because the current lease expires on April 30, 2012. The new office has been completely renovated to meet the needs of CIC clients and will improve the delivery of services to Niagara Region and parts of Haldimand County.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2012/2012-04-30.asp
In 2009, the MV Ocean Lady brought 76 Tamil migrants to British Columbia, and the MV Sun Sea brought 492 a year later. Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave Thailand another $12 million to combat the smugglers during a visit here last month and his government introduced a tough new immigration bill that targets the gangs. The much-touted legislation passed in the House of Commons on Friday and now goes to the Senate for quick, final approval. The co-ordinated policing and political effort involving Canadians, Thais, Australians and others across the globe appears to have prevented another Ocean Lady or Sun Sea from reaching Canada’s west coast. Earlier this month, a Sri Lankan ringleader of the Bangkok smuggling network was arrested in France.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/91423-tamils-fight-for-refugee-status
Ottawa’s plan to wipe out its immigration backlog will cost taxpayers at least $6.2 million more than the $130 million estimated by the federal government, says the immigration consulting industry. When Ottawa announced in March that it would return files and processing fees to applicants waiting in the backlog, its estimate did not include administrative costs such as courier services to send the files back to 280,000 people, said the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants.