immigrantscanada.com

Independent topical source of current affairs, opinion and issues, featuring stories making news in Canada from immigrants, newcomers, minorities & ethnic communities' point of view and interests.

people abdi: They fall through the cracks of the various systems that do not work in the interests of Black, racialized and poor people, according to Toronto Star. Abdi arrived in Nova Scotia in mid 2000 with his sister, and two aunts. What about the children who never even got a chance Abdoul Abdi's situation is one that dozens of people find themselves in. The family was granted permanent residency under a sponsored refugee program. By the age of nine, he had become a permanent ward of the state. Within a year of arriving, he and he sister were apprehended by children's services. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

nova scotia: The Hadhads arrived in Nova Scotia as refugees from Syria and formed Peace by Chocolate in a small barn in Antigonish in August 2016, according to The Chronicle Herald. Success was immediate and accelerated when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised the chocolate in a speech he gave to the United Nations in the fall of that year. Next year, they intend to expand nationally and into the U.S. All of this comes less than 18 months after the Syrian chocolatiers began operating in Canada. Trudeau's praise precipitated so many orders the company was forced to shut down its website for a while. Ingredients include local fresh organic honey and pure juices. The box of 15 chocolates now sold by Sobey's features white, milk and dark chocolate. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

wife: Holding their hands, he rushed them towards the back door of their house in Rakhine, Burma, according to Toronto Star. But the soldiers were already there. He quickly gathered his two daughters, his toddler son, and his wife who was 6 months pregnant. They grabbed his two daughters and took them into the surrounding forest. They ran for two days and one night. Maqsood couldn't help them, he just ran with his wife and son, away from the screams of his two young girls. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

wren dosant: It also aims to prep some of these students for a career in the force, according to CBC. Camp Brombal kicking off its 15th year I learned that it's not an easy job, said E.J. Lajeunesse grade 12 student Emily Kader. Windsor police celebrated them for completing an ethnic and cultural exchange program, that shows the teens what police officers do every day. There's a lot of gear you have to wear during the physical test and that was really hard. Wren Dosant said he hopes students are able to figure out if policing is for them or not, through the program. Sgt. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

year range: In return, millions of dollars in commissions are being paid to middlemen often Canadians. '1111915587851', 'playlist Selector' 'container Selector' ' container23473128', 'ciid' 'caffeine14438809' ; Is Canadian citizenship for sale 3 47 Estimates by top industry insiders of just how much the citizenship by investment business is worth each year range from 1 billion to 10 billion, according to CBC. One of the biggest attractions for potential investors is the visa-free access the passports offer to more than 100 countries, including the European Union. Industry insiders paint a picture of a multi-million dollar industry that runs in large part through Canada, connecting wealthy individuals from areas like China, Russia and the Middle East to citizenship by investment programs around the world. Without that access, citizens of some countries like China or Russia have to go through the paperwork of applying for separate visas for each country they want to visit. Antigua and Barbuda's program was designed by Don Myatt, a former Canadian federal public servant who worked with Henley and Partners, which designs and markets citizenship by investment programs. Canadians aren't only involved in promoting the programs they're also designing and running some of them. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

factory girl: Opens Friday December 8 . See listing, according to NOW Magazine. Rating NNNNAki Kaurism ki's been telling the same stories for decades now. Subtitled. His films are about unlikely connections that make the world a little warmer for the people in it. His latest, The Other Side Of Hope, reworks the premise of his 2011 drama, Le Havre, with an older European once again helping a displaced person from the Middle East find his way in a new country, but just six years later the state of the world imbues that plot with considerably more urgency. From Lights In The Dusk to The Man Without A Past, and The Match Factory Girl to Drifting Clouds, they're all about compassion and an abiding faith that people will heed their better angels. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

right rally: There's no easy way out, says Mayor Michael Signer, according to NOW Magazine. The recovery is going to continue for years. Months after Charlottesville, Virginia, became the scene of a deadly Unite The Right rally, residents are still dealing with the trauma. It's not just the physical violence that people were subjected to. Last week, more than 700 people in the community attended a workshop on healing, says Signer, who was in Toronto on November 29 to deliver a lecture at Ryerson University entitled Democracy In The Age Of Trump Trials, Tribulations And Resilience, as part of the student-led International Issues Discussion series on contemporary issues. It's also the visual violence, the actual terror that occurred. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

anti-corruption crusader: Saakashvili said he will not turn himself in, though prosecutors were welcome to see him at the camp outside the Supreme Rada where about 100 supporters gathered, according to Toronto Star. I'm ready to host their investigators here at the camp, he said. Ukrainian authorities accuse Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's former president and now an anti-corruption crusader in Ukraine, of colluding with Ukrainian businessmen to topple President Petro Poroshenko. From the very beginning they refused to register my party, then stripped me of my citizenship, then lied. It was the police's second unsuccessful attempt to arrest Saakashvili in as many days. Shame on you. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

board: Rocco and Niagara Falls resident Patrick Elliott, 46, are jointly charged with two counts of making, using and transferring a forged document, according to Toronto Star. Hamilton police Det. Patrick Rocco, 57, of Fonthill is charged with three counts of fraud under 5,000 that police say relate to credit card transactions that occurred during his time as human resources superintendent with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. Dave Place said it is alleged falsified documents were submitted to the U.S. Department of State relating to citizenship for personal gain. Rocco voluntarily left the Hamilton school board in 2015 to take a top administration job with the Toronto District School Board. But Place said he could not reveal what kind of documents were forged, or for what reason. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

conference theme: The conference theme, Building Stability and Creating Opportunity Lessons from Atlantic Canada, aligned with the commitment to collaboration among all regional stakeholders to attract and retain international students, according to The Chronicle Herald. Part of the AAU's mandate is to enable and promote inter-institutional collaboration, as well as partnership with the private sector, governments and communities. That was the topic of a presentation made by the Association of Atlantic universities the AAU at the recent Conference Board of Canada leaders' roundtable on immigration in Halifax. Our region has the most rapidly aging and declining population in Canada, and the lowest attraction and retention rates of new Canadians of any part of Canada. As the region's domestic population continues its steady decline, the value of international students to future institutional sustainability grows in importance. Yet, over the past 10 years, enrolment of international students in our universities has increased by more than 100 per cent! Today there are close to 14,000 international students studying in the region, representing nearly 20 per cent of total full-time university enrolment. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration partnership: Huda Hussein, who works as a project coordinator for the London and Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership, told CBC News Wednesday that the free lawn signs are a push back against recent anti-Islam rallies in the city, according to CBC. We want to have that conversation so that people think about this is a country of immigration and we are all striving to create a more welcoming community in the region, she said. The signs were handed out Wednesday at downtown London's Covent Garden Market. London Middlesex Local Immigartion Partnership Maria D'Souza, mariad lmlip.ca ; 519-663-0551 ext 240London Cross Cultural Learner Centre Suzanne La Rose, slarose lcclc.org; 519-432-1133LUSO Community Centre, Jacob Winter, jacob lusocentre.org; 519-452-1466South London Neighbourhood Resource Centre, Mohamed Al-Adeimi, MAlAdeimi slnrc.ca; 519-686-8600 ext 7029 Hundreds of people turned out at London City Hall in August in two opposing protests, that pitted anti-Islam protesters in an, at times, tense shouting match against counter demonstrators. Hussein said the free signs are a perfect time to address the problems that fuelled the protests earlier this summer. Mayor tells Londoners to 'stand up against hate' as white supremacist plan rally2 arrested at anti-Islam rally in London, Ont. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

daycare plans: David Lau, executive director of VIRCS, told All Points West host Jason D'Souza the need for child care, especially for infants, is so acute that the centre started receiving wait-list requests even before daycare plans were formally announced for the building it purchased in June, according to CBC. Province announces 33M to create 3,800 new child-care spaces B.C. NDP say universal child care won't come until after February budget announcement With help from the 371,173 in provincial funding, Lau said, we're hoping to build a trauma-informed daycare service. The Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society's planned daycare for 28 infants and children, in partnership with Family Services of Victoria, is among the projects eligible for provincial funding to create 948 new child-care spaces in Victoria and Vancouver Island communities stretching from Ucluelet to Campbell River. He said it is a model that was developed in Australia, although he is not aware of a similar daycare in Canada. VIRCS already operates programs for older children and youth including an adjustment support group for ages six to 11 to help immigrant and refugee children overcome challenges such as grief, separation from family members, isolation and traumatic experiences. With the sorts of kids that go through our centre and also Family Services of Greater Victoria, we do have some kids who go through and they could definitely use some help, he said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

editorial line: Repubblica has reported regularly on an escalation of incidents by Forza Nuova and other right-wing and skinhead movements targeting migrants, according to Metro News. The paper's editorial line has also favoured proposed legislation to accelerate citizenship for children born in Italy to immigrants. They carried a banner reading Boycott L'Espresso and Repubblica. In a statement on its Facebook page, Forza Nuova said it was declaring war on Repubblica and L'Espresso, accusing it of carrying out the genocide of the Italian people by supporting the citizenship sentiment has been rising in Italy, as in the rest of Europe, thanks to the influx of would-be refugees of many nationalities arriving on boats from Libya. Last week, a group of skinheads interrupted a meeting on housing migrants in the northern city of Como and read an anti-migrant manifesto, prompting calls for the Interior Ministry to formally dissolve such groups. Tensions have grown more acute as Italy heads into general elections next year, with a centre -right coalition including the anti-immigrant Northern League trying to regain the premiership from the Democratic Party. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration system: We are aware of it, we are absolutely concerned and are opposed to people taking advantage of international students, Hussen said outside cabinet, according to CTV. We urge all of the effected parties to contact the P.E.I. provincial nominee program folks to deal with this and we'll do whatever we can to help the province. Ahmed Hussen said in Ottawa Wednesday he's expecting the Liberal provincial government to take action on the issue, but also said in general he's pleased by a provincial immigration system that is being criticized by some immigration lawyers as lacking sufficient oversight. On Nov. 26, The Canadian Press reported on three international students who described how they were required to return a portion of their pay to owners of businesses set up under the ownership stream of the provincial nominee program. All of the students are international students from China, and they were concerned about repercussions on their current employment prospects on the Island if identified. In one case, a student said he was fired when he refused, and in two other cases, the students said they agreed to give back a portion of their income in cash. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

media barons: Within a few short years, oligarchs, media barons and officials who weren't loyal to Putin personally were eliminated, according to Toronto Star. As Russian anti-corruption crusader, Bill Browder says, the cost to those oligarchs who wished to remain in business and untouched by the Kremlin, was 50 per cent of everything they had, making Vladimir Putin one of the richest people in the world. Hope for any Western-style democratic reform was lost when Boris Yeltsin handed his country to the unremarkable former KGB officer in 2000. Russia's press, which was remarkably open and free in the early 2000s, was quickly silenced, as Putin ordered police raids of major media networks, which were expropriated by the state, broken up and sold to his friends. Anna Politkovskaya, who questioned Russia's war against Chechen separatists, was gunned down in an elevator in her apartment block. Journalists who questioned the Kremlin's tactics were silenced with assassin's bullets. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

midnight friday: With money for federal agencies running out at midnight Friday, Republican leaders plan to push a bill through Congress this week financing the government through Dec. 22, according to CTV. That would give bargainers time to work through their disagreements, but they will need Democratic votes to succeed. Trump's comments risked roiling a White House meeting with congressional leaders of both parties planned for Thursday aimed at averting a shutdown and sorting through year-end disputes over the budget, immigration and other issues. Democrats have been using their leverage to insist on spending boosts for health care, infrastructure and other domestic programs that would match increases Republicans want for defence. Trump ended safeguards against deportation three months ago but has expressed an openness to restoring them. Democrats are also seeking an agreement to extend protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

mike finnerty: In conversation with Daybreak host Mike Finnerty on Wednesday, he explained why he wants to temporarily curb immigration, boost the birth rate among Quebecers and encourage shop clerks to say bonjour rather than bonjour/hi, according to CBC. Here's the full interview, edited for length and clarity. The latest opinion poll, released Saturday by L ger for Le Devoir, had the CAQ in top spot, four percentage points ahead of the Liberals, and far ahead among francophones, a crucial voting block. Mike Finnerty Are you leading the polls because voters like you and your party, or because they are sick and tired of the Liberals and Parti Qu b cois Fran ois Legault I think it's both. But also they are happy about the measures we propose to put more money in families' wallets. I think that yes, after 15 years of Liberal governments, Quebec needs change to replace a worn-out government. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

quebec city: It was a watershed event in how it represents the infiltration of radical right-wing ideas in a violent form as we've also seen in the U.S. and Europe, said James Ellis, project lead at the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society, according to CTV. It was a crystallization of Islamophobia in Quebec and beyond, he told CTVNews.ca in an interview, adding that there have been growing concerns about a rise in hate crimes directed towards Muslims in Quebec and a general undercurrent of anti-Muslim sentiment. A shooting at a mosque outside Quebec City on Jan. 29 killed six people and injured 19, making it the second-most deadly right-wing act of terrorism behind the Air India bombing in 1985. Civil liberties advocates have challenged the constitutionality of Quebec's ban on face coverings -- which was temporarily struck down on Dec. 1 -- and decried the July vote of a small town outside Quebec City that prohibited a Muslim cemetery. The patterns we are seeing throughout the U.S. know no border. Canada far from isolated Ellis, who was previously the manager for the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism a non-profit funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security said the threat of right-wing violent extremism has been largely ignored in Canada. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

state: He has been in jail since the day of the shooting, according to Metro News. His public defender Matt Gonzalez said Garcia Zarate will ask a judge to toss out the state conviction. The state conviction carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail. Garcia Zarate is to be sentenced in state court Dec. 14. He said he still believed Garcia Zarate should have been convicted of Steinle's murder. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon on Tuesday defended his office's handling of the case. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

thomas homan: Although more criminals have been arrested, many more without such records are being picked up, according to Metro News. What is apparent is that immigration arrests are up across the board and fewer people are trying to get into the country illegally. So when immigration officials came forward Tuesday to produce statistics showing an aggressive arrest record, they were eager to demonstrate that they're giving priority to serious criminals, not just those whose only crime is being in the country illegally. Thomas Homan, deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, addressed the subject at a news conference. I've repeatedly said that is false. I've read a lot of stories and comments over the past several months falsely accusing ICE of conducting indiscriminate raids and sweeps, arresting people at churches, arresting people at hospitals. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

world right: We are at a pivot point in the world right now, where we decide whether we work together in an open and confident way and succeed or whether we all falter separately and isolated, he said, according to National Observer. As that anxiety spreads, people start to turn inwards. Trudeau came to the Fortune Global Forum, a Davos-style gathering of the world's business elite, to sell Canada as a good place for foreign investment, but he went off script and delivered a stern warning about the dangers of allowing protectionism and inequality to flourish. They start to close off. If that continues to happen, make no mistake about it, we will all lose. They start to get fearful, he added. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

alyssa fearon: If Alyssa Fearon, the Scarborough segment's newly named curator, has her way, Nuit's move will break ground in more ways than one, according to Toronto Star. You always hear about Scarborough as a place that's underprivileged, that's at risk, that's a priority,' she says. Next year, it ranges farther than it ever has To Scarborough, where a sizeable chunk of the annual overnight art event will touch down at dusk on Sept. 29, 2018. I really think that does a disservice to what's happening there. That's what I want to illuminate the great things that are there already. There's a lot of resilience, a lot of creativity. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

border arrests: Despite the significant decline, border arrests increased every month since May largely families and unaccompanied children, according to Toronto Star. ICE will no longer exempt any class of removable alien from potential enforcement activity, Thomas Homan, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told reporters during a briefing Tuesday. The Border Patrol made 310,531 arrests during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, a decline of 25 per cent from 415,816 a year earlier and the lowest level since 1971. In other words, officers are empowered to do their sworn duty to enforce the law as it was written. After Trump took office, ICE arrests surged 40 per cent from the same period a year earlier. ICE, whose officers pick up people for deportation, made 143,470 arrests, an increase of 25 per cent from 114,434 a year earlier. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian studies: Between 2001 and 2006 about 11,500 more people left the province than moved here, according to CTV. Jack Jedwab of the Association for Canadian Studies looked at the data provided by Statistics Canada to determine how many Quebecers were leaving. Data from the census shows that between 2011 and 2016 Quebec had a net loss of 37,000 people, while in the previous five years the net loss was about 20,000. He believes a crucial role is how the provincial economy is believed to have slumped compared to other provinces -- even if that's not necessarily the case. I think some of the things that are driving these departures, which are taxation issues, higher income, are things the government needs to work on, said Jedwab. Jedwab said about one-third of those who leave are aged 25-34, which implies people are having difficulty starting careers after finishing university. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

couillard estimates: The premier was speaking in Quebec City at a forum on diversity and discrimination that replaced previously scrapped consultations on systemic racism, according to The Chronicle Herald. Quebec government statistics indicate the province's active population has been diminishing by 5,000 workers a year since 2014. Couillard estimates more than 1.3 million jobs will need to be filled in Quebec by 2024. That translates into companies being forced to scale back on investments and turning down contracts. I would place this issue even above what's currently at stake in the trade agreements, he said. Couillard said many Quebec businesses are crying out for workers. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

dalai lama: Michael, who played a pivotal role in Romania's switch to the Allied cause following a coup in 1944, spent decades in exile working as a chicken farmer and aircraft pilot, according to Toronto Star. He finally got his citizenship back in 1997, eight years after the collapse of communism. He was 96. Michael's death leaves only two people alive who headed their nations during the war former King Simeon II of Bulgaria, and the Dalai Lama of Tibet, both of whom were children at the time. Michael had been suffering from leukemia and another type of cancer and last year withdrew from public life, handing over his responsibilities to his oldest daughter. Read more Romania's ex-king Michael I has seen it all before In a statement, the Romanian royal house said Michael died in his residence in Aubonne, Switzerland. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.