immigration policy: Trump called the sanctuary cities order a weapon against communities that disagree with his preferred immigration policy, Orrick said, according to CTV. The judge also cited a February interview in which he said the president threatened to cut off funding to California, saying the state in many ways is out of control. In a ruling on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Orrick quoted Trump to support his decision to block the president's order to withhold funding from sanctuary cities that do not co-operate with U.S. immigration officials. The first comment was evidence that the administration intended the executive order to apply broadly to all sorts of federal funding, and not a relatively small pot of grant money as the Department of Justice had argued, the judge said. Orrick's ruling was another immigration policy setback for the administration as it approaches its 100th day in office later this month. The second statement showed the two California governments that sued to block the order -- San Francisco and Santa Clara County -- had good reason to believe they would be targeted, Orrick said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration: Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Wednesday opened the office dubbed the Victims of Immigrant Crime Engagement, or VOICE. He said it will be used to keep victims informed of the immigration proceedings of suspects and generally walk them through the complicated and often drawn-out immigration court process, according to Metro News. The office will be staffed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees. It is the Executive Office for Immigration Review.A corrected version of the story is below New US office seeks to aid victims of crimes by immigrants The Trump administration has opened an office dedicated to helping victims of crimes committed by immigrants By ALICIA A. CALDWELLAssociated Press Stymied on his top immigration initiatives, President Donald Trump is making good on one plan that critics denounce as fearmongering and misleading opening an office for victims of crimes committed by immigrants, although studies show immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens. Kelly focused his brief remarks on immigrant criminals in the country illegally, saying they never should have been in the United States and able to carry out crimes. The Trump administration has frequently highlighted crimes committed by immigrants in the country illegally and the cases receive widespread attention in pro-Trump news outlets, often more than comparable crimes committed by U.S. citizens. But the ICE officials will also aid victims of crimes attributed to immigrants living in the United States legally, a group that could include permanent residents. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

minister ring: It's a corporate tradition to let everyone at Vidyard know that the fast-growing technology firm has found another corporate partner, according to Hamilton Spectator. Having the prime minister ring the bell with you, that's not so traditional. She stood side-by-side with Justin Trudeau to ring a big bell. The bell clanged and echoed. Lima, an account executive with the video analytics firm, beamed. Everyone in the building cheered. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

ottawa family: For years, Siam has called on the Harper and Trudeau governments to allow her to live in peace with her Ottawa family, and over 22,000 people have signed a petition in her support, according to Rabble. While she applauds the work of those Canadian officials who went overseas to facilitate the entry of thousands of other Syrian refugees, she wonders why she cannot meet one of those same officials in a downtown Ottawa office to resolve her limbo. Siam, whose husband and four children are Canadian, survives every day under the shadow of a deportation order to Syria because of a simple paperwork error that, despite being resolved years ago, continues to supply the immigration bureaucracy with the cruel rationale to carry on the same hard-hearted policies that marked the Harper regime. The painful reality of Dima Siam's life hit home once again last week when she showed up at the Ottawa airport to welcome her brother-in-law and his family, Syrian refugees who had been sponsored by her husband, Mohammad, and the United Church. Sort of sour happiness. The new arrivals to Canada were welcomed with kind, loving arms by community members even as Siam contemplated the fact that her own temporary resident permit will soon expire and she is no longer eligible for post-partum health care.A sour happiness I had mixed feelings, she says, her husband Mohammad translating. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

party leaders: B.C. Votes 2017 CBC streaming leaders debate live on Facebook, CBC.ca/bc As we approach the halfway point in this campaign, and with the leaders' debate looming, it is worth asking whether party leaders are seeking to buy our votes by cutting tolls and fees, and promising bridges in one place or another, or whether they are offering us a vision of the kind of society in which we wish to live. 1, according to CBC. Is it to our narrower self-interest that the leaders appeal or to the common good of all With all the private cash in politics, we have reason to be alert to the inevitability that the parties will be particularly responsive to the interests of their donors. Democracy comes to an end if citizens and politicians act only in their narrow, short-term self-interest; but all of us asking the right questions can help keep it alive. Money in politics undermines public trust because it forces us, the voters, to wonder how the promises parties make align with those donors. 2. This competition militates against other functions parties serve representing constituents, finding legislative compromises through deliberation and encouraging internal democracy. Will the leaders transcend partisanship Parties have a tendency to become oligarchies because their raison d' tre is winning elections. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

predecessor hernandez: His detention comes as the Trump administration charts a more aggressive approach to deportation than its predecessor, according to Metro News. Hernandez spent nine months living in the basement of Denver's First Unitarian Church starting in October of 2014 after the Obama administration tried to deport him. Arturo Hernandez has one daughter who is a U.S. citizen and a second protected from deportation under an Obama administration program for people brought to the country illegally as children. Hernandez came to the attention of immigration agents after being charged with assault for a workplace incident, even though he was acquitted at trial of criminal wrongdoing. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnoff noted in a statement that Hernandez has an active deportation order from that case. Hernandez left the church and resumed working after the Obama administration assured him his case would no longer be a deportation priority. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

press review: That's only a slight decline from the 73 per cent that minorities comprised in such street-level encounters between 2011 and early 2015, according to data the city made available last year, according to Toronto Star. It's also higher than the roughly 63 per cent that blacks comprised between 2007 and 2010, according to a report the department released in 2015. At least 71 per cent of all street level, police-civilian encounters from 2015 through early 2016 involved persons of colour, while whites comprised about 22 per cent, an Associated Press review of the most recently available data shows. That report didn't include the tallies for other minority groups. Article Continued Below Over 7 per cent of all police-civilian encounters compiled in the department's 2015 to 2016 Field Interrogation, Observation, Frisk and/or Search reports don't list the civilian's race at all. And the gap between minorities and whites in the most recent reporting period is likely higher. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

rights record: We heard it again from former American president Barack Obama in 2016, and even more recently from UN special rapporteurs who were visiting the nation's capital earlier this month, according to Toronto Star. But when it comes to disseminating good ideas, Canada could and should be more vocal, especially with regards to the protection and promotion of minority rights. Rick Madonik / Toronto Star By Amira Elghawaby Wed., April 26, 2017 Many years ago, then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced that the world needs more Canada. On the one hand, Canada already has its hands full in working to rectify its dismal human rights record towards First Nations and indigenous communities. Considering that we have just marked the 35th anniversary of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, now is a good time as any to review exactly why Canadians have something valuable to share and where there is room for improvement. But recent case law illustrates a forward-thinking approach on other contentious issues that should serve as an example for the rest of the world. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

russian language: It's how Russian officials are waging a war of words, according to Hamilton Spectator. They're using the language of American politics to do it. But there's one way in which Russia and the United States are getting closer. Take fake news feik nyus an expression that regularly appears in the denunciation by Russian officials of American and European news reports. But none of those quite captures the modern phenomenon of an industry of made-up websites, tweets, and other social media posts that are created by someone and distributed by bots, said Michele A. Berdy, who writes a column about the Russian language for the Moscow Times. There are plenty of ways to express fake in Russian - obman, falshivka, poddelka, utka - depending on whether you're talking about a hoax, a falsification, a counterfeit, or a canard. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

source countries: They just walk, according to Metro News. Even individuals in wheelchairs have somehow crossed the grass to come into Canada, we're not quite sure how. Chis Friesen, settlement services director with the Immigrant Services Society of B.C., estimated that 80 per cent of the nearly 300 refugee claimants his organization has served in just the first three months of 2017, arrived on foot across the border from the U.S. into B.C. There is an underground railroad that supports these individuals coming from abroad, he explained. This is not new, but what is new is the increasing numbers and the diversity of the source countries, and the complexity of needs many of these families come with . At a press conference on Wednesday morning, the City of Vancouver stepped forward with more than 180,000 in funding to five local organizations at the front line of welcoming refugees. I was not the same Petros, the same person, when I was here back in November 2016, he told reporters. The mayor received thanks from an African refugee, Petros, who asked that his full name and nationality not be published for fear of reprisals against his family back home. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

speech police: Gay rights advocates, some of whom who were dragged away after approaching Moon following a speech at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday, see Moon's words as hate speech, according to The Chronicle Herald. Police said 13 activists were detained at the scene of Moon's speech on suspicion of violating laws that ban protests inside the gates of the legislature. Moon, a liberal candidate and former human rights lawyer, made the comments Tuesday night while responding to a conservative presidential candidate who argued gay soldiers were weakening the country's military. Moon's supporters defended his comments as in line with many South Koreans' views. Sexual minorities are harshly stigmatized in South Korea and struggle with political visibility because a powerful Christian lobby keeps politicians from passing anti-discrimination laws. Moon's camp didn't immediately respond to the criticism by gay rights activists. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

stephanie levitz: John Woods / The Canadian Press file photo By Stephanie Levitz The Canadian Press Wed., April 26, 2017 OTTAWA Help keep our borders safe, read a recent fundraising pitch from the federal Conservative party a plea the official Opposition is linking directly to the increased flow of asylum seekers crossing illegally into Canada, according to Toronto Star. Since January, nearly 1,900 people have been intercepted by the RCMP crossing into Canada. Since January, nearly 1,900 people have been intercepted by the RCMP crossing into Canada. Asylum numbers in general are on the rise, projected to be at historic levels by year's end. Read more Illegal border crossings into Canada continue to rise Article Continued Below Trump, tighter air travel rules behind surge of refugees at Canada-U.S. border, experts say Stop standing by' on border crossers, Manitoba premier Brian Pallister tells federal minister But the asylum seekers coming illegally into Canada have opened up a political can of worms and now both parties are rethinking their approach, each with a careful eye to how the politics of immigration played out in the U.S. react-empty 157 Since Justin Trudeau issued his open invitation on Twitter that Canadians will welcome you,' our country has seen an influx of asylum seekers illegally crossing our border from a perfectly safe country the United States, the letter said. The Conservatives lost the last federal election in part because of a perception they were too tough on the world's most vulnerable; the Liberals won it with a pledge to open Canada's doors. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

times scientists: Fisheries have been marked by their boom-and-bust natures, and by the fish harvesters who have been left out in the cold when stocks collapse, according to Hamilton Spectator. You have to think that a startling amount of it is because of what we don't know not only what we don't know about commercially important species, but what we don't know about the whole spectrum of marine life that lives off our shores. Fish harvesters have been issuing warnings, too, about the catch rates of specific species they are fishing, and about the general abundance of other known species. Look at federal fisheries science reports, and one of the most startling things is the number of times scientists write about the information they don't have. Many aspects of Atlantic hagfish life history and behaviour, including their mode of reproduction, remain unknown. Here are a few samples. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

trump administration: She says opening the borders should be discussed, but that's not going to be enough in and of itself, according to CTV. Ivanka Trump's comments were a contrast with the rhetoric from President Donald Trump. On NBC's Today, the adviser to the president spoke about a global humanitarian crisis. The president has sought to stop immigration from six predominantly Muslim counties -- Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The Trump administration is appealing the rulings. His two efforts to implement a ban have been blocked by federal courts. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

volunteer manitoba: Established in 1986, the awards are presented every year in co-operation with Volunteer Manitoba, according to CBC. They are intended to recognize and encourage valuable services provided by volunteers in Manitoba. The 2017 Premier's Volunteer Service Awards were given out to seven people, including two youths, along with three organizations. Brian Pallister stands with one of the 2017 Premier's Volunteer Service Award recipient Raymond Ngarboui and volunteer Megan McKenzie. Volunteering for me is a way of giving back, said Ngarboui. Government of Manitoba The award recipients this year include Raymond Ngarboui, who arrived in Winnipeg as a permanent resident in late-2005 after living as a refugee in Cameroon. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

asylum: Asylum numbers in general are on the rise, projected to be at historic levels by year's end, according to Brandon Sun. The Conservatives lost the last federal election in part because of a perception they were too tough on the world's most vulnerable; the Liberals won it with a pledge to open Canada's doors. Since January, nearly 1,900 people have been intercepted by the RCMP crossing into Canada. But the asylum seekers coming illegally into Canada have opened up a political can of worms and now both parties are rethinking their approach, each with a careful eye to how the politics of immigration played out in the U.S. Since Justin Trudeau issued his open invitation on Twitter that 'Canadians will welcome you,' our country has seen an influx of asylum seekers illegally crossing our border from a perfectly safe country the United States, the letter said. Help us set the course for victory in 2019. It is during times like this that Canada needs strong, transparent leadership that will enforce our laws and keep Canadians safe, it continued. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

islamic clerics: The country's top institution of Islamic clerics, Al-Azhar, bluntly rejected the idea, saying Islam gives men that right and nothing can change that, according to Brandon Sun. In the months since, that confrontation escalated into a blistering feud over who speaks for Islam and how to bring reforms. Egypt's president proposed a new law that would prevent Muslim men from ending their marriages simply by saying divorce three times. Pro-government media accuse Al-Azhar of failing to modernize its teaching to counter militant thought that breeds jihadi movements and violence like the Islamic State group's recent attacks on Egypt's Christians. Al-Azhar is revered in Egypt and is prestigious across the Muslim world. This weekend, Pope Francis meets in Cairo with Al-Azhar's grand imam, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, their second meeting in a historic initiative to improve Muslim-Christian dialogue. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

press review: That's only a slight decline from the 73 per cent that minorities comprised in such street-level encounters between 2011 and early 2015, according to data the city made available last year, according to Brandon Sun. It's also higher than the roughly 63 per cent that blacks comprised between 2007 and 2010, according to a report the department released in 2015. At least 71 per cent of all street level, police-civilian encounters from 2015 through early 2016 involved persons of colour, while whites comprised about 22 per cent, an Associated Press review of the most recently available data shows. That report didn't include the tallies for other minority groups. Over 7 per cent of all police-civilian encounters compiled in the department's 2015 to 2016 Field Interrogation, Observation, Frisk and/or Search reports don't list the civilian's race at all. And the gap between minorities and whites in the most recent reporting period is likely higher. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

speech police: Gay rights advocates, some of whom who were dragged away after approaching Moon following a speech at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday, see Moon's words as hate speech, according to Brandon Sun. Police said 13 activists were detained at the scene of Moon's speech on suspicion of violating laws that ban protests inside the gates of the legislature. Moon, a liberal candidate and former human rights lawyer, made the comments Tuesday night while responding to a conservative presidential candidate who argued gay soldiers were weakening the country's military. Moon's supporters defended his comments as in line with many South Koreans' views. Sexual minorities are harshly stigmatized in South Korea and struggle with political visibility because a powerful Christian lobby keeps politicians from passing anti-discrimination laws. Moon's camp didn't immediately respond to the criticism by gay rights activists. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

aid organizations: While aid organizations have been providing food and shelter, children's education has been somewhat overlooked, and that's becoming increasingly important, according to Huffington Post Canada. It's been reported that the Islamic State has been recruiting their next generation of fighters by providing them with their own programs to teach math, grammar and English, as well as their ideologies. Ever since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, millions of men, women and children have had to flee to refugee camps in several other countries. According to Foreign Policy, there are about two million children in these camps, which is why the people behind Sesame Street have joined forces with the International Rescue Committee IRC to bring special educational programming to children in camps. In a piece that she published on Medium in February, Westin highlighted the effect that the Sesame Street has had over the years when it came to providing early childhood education to children across the world. When speaking at Foreign Policy's Culture Summit in Abu Dhabi, Sherrie Rollins Westin, executive vice president of the Sesame Street's nonprofit arm, said that if there are major issues that have an impact on children, we look for where we can make a difference. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

asylum claims: Now that the last of the three lawyers has been slapped with penalties for professional misconduct over their handling of Roma refugee cases, a community coalition has asked Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen to create a special program to grant permanent residency to their affected clients, according to Toronto Star. While the Law Society of Upper Canada sanctions recognize the lawyers' misconduct, they don't assist the victims. By Nicholas Keung Immigration reporter Tues., April 25, 2017 Ottawa is being urged to offer redress to the Roma refugees who were the clients of three disciplined Toronto lawyers and subsequently had their asylum claims rejected by Canada. We need a specific program to provide redress to this group of vulnerable people, said lawyer Maureen Silcoff of the Redress for Roma Refugee Coalition. This month Joseph Stephen Farkas was suspended for six months, ordered to pay the law society 200,000 and placed under supervision by a refugee lawyer for at least one year after a disciplinary tribunal found he had failed to properly supervise his non-lawyer employees when serving some Roma clients. They continue to face harassment and persecution back home. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

buyers charge: The major explanation for mismatched supply and demand is domestic new homes not keeping pace with Toronto's 1.6 per cent annual immigration rate an increase in population of over 100,000 a year a local economy that's actually doing quite well, and the irruption into Toronto of an ascendant set of values that can be attributed to an already landed, prospering immigrant class, according to Hamilton Spectator. The latter is not a racist suggestion as, to an extent, the foreign buyers charge is but the tail end and proof of the arguments we use to justify welcome new arrivals, typically portrayed as hardworking and with the drive to augment Canadian prosperity. Even proponents of the provincial Liberals' new speculation tax conceded it accounts for only five to eight per cent of purchases. To wit one of my wife's daughters has been looking for a property for a year. A university professor, he'd bought properties in the city for himself and for each of his children present ages six and four and these are the ones he is renting. When finally she rented, it was from a new Canadian who believed as a certain fictional character in my own family's past did that a man without land is nobody. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

citizenship process: Supporters travelled to Detroit from Chicago to pack the courtroom, and many were in tears later on the courthouse steps, according to Metro News. Odeh was convicted at trial in 2014 and sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the verdict was overturned. Rasmea Odeh, 69, will be deported to Jordan or another country in the months ahead. A second trial was planned in Detroit, the city where she went through the citizenship process in 2004, before she decided to accept a plea deal. He gave up and accepted her reply that she had admitted her crime in the court document. But even with the plea agreement, Odeh found it impossible to say the word guilty when repeatedly asked by U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

customs enforcement: What is your relation to Joselin I am a friend, replied retired chemist Marisa Lohse, who has accompanied dozens of immigrants to such hearings, according to Metro News. Lohse is among hundreds of volunteers, including preachers, law students and retirees, who've stepped up to accompany people in the U.S. illegally to court hearings and meetings with immigration officials, guiding them through an often intimidating process. Thank you, the judge said. Some of them say the accompaniment is more important than ever since Republican President Donald Trump expanded the definition of deportable offences to include all immigrants living in the country illegally, giving rise to immigrants being apprehended during routine check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The pain, the fear, is bigger, said Guillermo Torres, from Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice in Los Angeles. We want to increase the accompaniment because the crisis is more severe. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

dalhousie university: Kolesov and the rest of the YAS string quartet were set to perform Beethoven's Serioso at a concert hall in Halifax on Sunday, but the show was cancelled because of his immigration issues, according to Hamilton Spectator. Kolesov, 23, is currently studying in Chicago, having previously pursued a music degree at Halifax's Dalhousie University, but the musical prodigy says he doesn't feel fully welcome in any of the three countries in which he has lived. But Artem Kolesov says first getting Canada's permission to cross the border for a classical concert is a struggle in itself. Kolesov says he has known he is gay since he was five years old, but between his parents' strict conservative beliefs at home in St. I truly believed that gay people were these horrible monsters that caused so many issues in the world, and you should really get rid of them, says Kolesov. Petersburg and homophobic sentiment in Russia sanctioned by a so-called anti-gay propaganda law he says coming out meant risking family banishment or even violence. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

diversity: We really wanted to sort of go beyond the normative argument, and there is a lot of positive rhetoric about that it's a good thing for society, which we agree with 100 per cent, but we wanted to see if there was a business case, said Momani in an interview with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris on Tuesday, according to CBC. They found the strongest relationship between diversity and performance in cultural industries, communications, business and legal services. For every 1 per cent increase in ethnocultural diversity, on average companies saw a 2.4 per cent bump in revenue and a 0.5 per cent increase in productivity, said Bessma Momani and Jillian Stirk, the authors of Diversity Dividend Canada's Global Advantage, published on Monday. The report doesn't try to sugarcoat this, there is a lot of work to be done. They did statistical data modelling based on the workplace employee survey by Statistics Canada, which covers more than 7,900 workplaces in 14 sectors, from 1991 to 2005. There's a great deal of discrimination in this country.'- Bessma Momani, co-author of Diversity Dividend Methodology The pair spoke to about 100 business leaders across the country,in a series of roundtables in seven different cities. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.