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.
Kenney: Tamil Ship Was Believed Headed to Canada
Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said a human smuggling ship intercepted Monday appeared to have been “destined for Canada” and reinforces the need to pass the Tory government’s anti-smuggling legislation. “We are not going to be a doormat for the dangerous crime of human smuggling,” Kenney told reporters at a news conference Tuesday in Calgary. Human smuggling is already a crime in this country, but there has been few successful prosecutions and the government says the act would strengthen Canada’s ability to prosecute such crimes and deter queue-jumping in the immigration system.
Advisory Panel Urges More Clarity Over Migrant Terminology
The tone of public discussion about the arrival of hundreds of Tamil migrants by sea last year was “regrettable,” a federal advisory panel quietly told the government.The uproar prompted members of the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security to recommend Ottawa clarify for Canadians the differences between immigrants and asylum-seekers, newly obtained documents show. Roundtable members want Canadians to realize that not everybody who shows up “is necessarily illegal or a queue-jumper,” said Leo Adler, a member since the body’s inception six years ago.
Every month, Mohamud Osman sends a few hundred dollars to his uncle and his grandmother in Somalia. The money keeps his family from starving in that chaotic and drought-stricken country, now suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Millions of people in East Africa are at risk of dying from famine or disease. […] Osman is among many local immigrants from Somalia who are feeling grief and pain at the plight of their birth country, already damaged by two decades of civil war and now suffering a catastrophic two-year-long drought.
One of China’s most wanted men has been ordered released while the Federal Court in Vancouver determines whether he’ll be deported. Lai Changxing has spent 11 years fighting extradition to China, where he’s accused of orchestrating a vast smuggling ring that cheated the government out of billions of dollars in duties on imported goods and bribed officials to look the other way. An Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicator has ordered Lai released from custody until that court hearing, concluding Lai is not a flight risk.
London’s Muslim community has been awarded $200,000 to continue its pioneering work to deal with family violence in immigrant and refugee communities. Attorney General Chris Bentley announced the funding Monday, $80,000 of which comes from his ministry’s victims’ justice fund and $120,000 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. “The Muslim community has shown leadership,” Bentley said of the funding, which will cover expenses for the next two years of the Safe Integration Project.
International Migration: Where do people go and where from?
The US is the top destination for permanent immigrants according to a report published today. The international migration outlook 2011 released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) highlights the top 25 countries with the highest number of immigrants into OECD countries and also shows where they come from.
