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.
Chronicle Herald – ‘I’m Wasting My Time:’ Syrian Doctor Stuck Working at the Home Depot
Immigrant and refugee doctors have to go through a long, complicated and expensive process to get licenced in Nova Scotia. When he fled Syria in 2013 for Jordan, Al Refai left his post as a resident doctor at the National Hospital in Daraa. “The biggest barrier is language,” says Al Refai. “Your language has to be perfect … It would be a disaster if you misunderstood a patient.” The Syrian doctor explains that he lives in desperation and frustration.
Reuters – North American Indigenous Chafe at Restrictions Along U.S.-Canada Border
The United States and Canada share the largest undefended border in the world, but free passage across it for indigenous tribes is easier in one direction than the other, tribal leaders and immigration lawyers said at the Arctic Encounter Symposium this week. A tribal member born in Canada can come to the United States to work or live without the paperwork usually required by immigration law thanks to a 200-year-old treaty. Canada, not a party to the treaty, has different rules.
Globe and Mail – Canada’s New Far Right: A Trove of Private Chat Room Messages Reveals an Extremist Subculture
They are anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, sexist and racist. They are young and radicalized. They are the new far right in Canada. The Globe and Mail has obtained a trove of 150,000 messages posted between February, 2017, and early 2018 that reveal the private communications of a loosely aligned node of Canadian right-wing extremists. The record of their continuing conversations reveals a movement, energized by the rise of white ethnonationalism in the United States, that aims to upend a decades-old multicultural consensus in this country.
La Presse – Consultation sur le racisme et la discrimination systémiques à Montréal
L’Office de consultation publique de Montréal lance une consultation sur le racisme et la discrimination systémiques dans les compétences de la Ville de Montréal comme l’ont réclamé les milliers de signataires d’une pétition en vertu du droit d’initiative, l’été dernier. « Cette consultation résulte de la volonté de quelque 20 000 personnes qui, en signant la pétition, ont choisi de faire confiance à l’intelligence collective pour trouver des moyens de favoriser l’inclusion et la justice sociale à Montréal », a déclaré la présidente de l’Office de consultation publique.
Toronto Star – Three Punjabi-Canadian Sisters Overcame Cultural Norms to Report Their Abuser. Then They Made a Documentary About It
In the 1980s, three young sisters suffered in silence. Unbeknown to the rest of their tightly knit Indo-Canadian family, all three were being sexually abused by an older male relative who lived with them. Now the story will be shared with the rest of the world as the film makes its debut next week at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival. The documentary chronicles the sisters’ journey to bring their abuser to justice, and confronts cultural stigma and the shame it confers on victims.
CTV News – Immigrant-Owned Firms Create More Jobs than Those with Canadian-Born Owners: StatCan
The decade-long research, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, distinguishes between firms owned by immigrants who entered Canada since 1980 and businesses with Canadian-born owners. During the period of the study, 2003 to 2013, companies owned by immigrant entrepreneurs accounted for a quarter of all net new jobs created in the private sector, while representing just 17 per cent of firms. “The results revealed that private incorporated immigrant-owned firms were much more likely than firms with Canadian-born owners to be job creators than job destroyers,” the study authors wrote.
