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.
Some Twitter users are flocking to support Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi in a war of words with Conservative candidate Jason Kenney. Nenshi decried the Conservatives’ position that women should be banned from wearing niqabs during citizenship ceremonies, calling the politics surrounding the debate “disgusting” and “unbelievably dangerous stuff” in a Sirius XM radio interview with Evan Solomon on Wednesday. Kenney shot back in an interview with Postmedia on Thursday, saying, “it seems to me that it’s the mayor and people like him who are politicizing it.” The mayor responded on Twitter by questioning Kenney’s turn of phrase. […] On Friday, Kenney denied that his comment had anything to do with Nenshi’s religion or ethnicity. […]He said it was “completely ridiculous” to suggest that his comments were about religion or ethnicity. “I think I referred to politically correct liberals who were politicizing this issue.”
Huffington Post – Kenney Says Tories Would Strip Every Convicted Terrorist of Citizenship, If They Could
The Conservative party would strip all Canadians of their citizenship if they were convicted of terrorism offences but can’t because of a UN convention, Tory incumbent candidate Jason Kenney said in an interview this week. “Oh, yes. Oh, absolutely. If we did not have the legal constraint, then the legal principle of revocation for convictions of political violence against Canada, like treason, acts of war, terrorism, would lead to revocation of citizenship,” he told CBC Radio’s “As It Happens” on Monday. Kenney was defending the government’s changes to the Citizenship Act, a bill that was known as C-24. The law was passed in 2014 but emerged as an election topic after the Tories decided last Friday to revoke the citizenship of Zakaria Amara, a dual Canadian-Jordanian citizen and one of the ringleaders of the “Toronto 18” bomb plot. […] Kenney defended the law this week, saying it makes no distinction between Canadians who are born here and those who are naturalized. “However, in practice,” the Conservative candidate added, “because of the international convention on the prevention of statelessness, it cannot be applied to people who only have one nationality.
Business Vancouver – B.C. Immigration Crashes to 15-Year Low
As a panel discussion on foreign home ownership prepares to convene next week in Vancouver, the latest statistics show that international immigration to British Columbia has crashed to 15-year lows. The first half of 2015 has seen a net increase of less than 6,000 immigrants into B.C., compared with more than 18,000 in the same period last year. This was the first time in more than 15 years, BC Stats said, that B.C. experienced a net loss of non-permanent residents. If the current trend continues, immigration to B.C. will fall below the annual inflow that forms a key foundation of housing demand forecasts. The dramatic decline began in the fourth quarter of 2014 when net immigration fell to negative 1,808 people – meaning that many more people left B.C. for other countries than arrived. This was the first net loss of immigrants to the province in more than a decade.
Globe and Mail – Tories Move to Revoke Citizenship of Convicted Terrorist Born in Canada
In a punishment being likened to the centuries-old practice of exile, the Canadian government is attempting for the first time to revoke the citizenship of a convicted terrorist who was born in Canada, using new powers the Conservative government introduced last year. And the Canadian at the centre of it – Montreal-born Saad Gaya, now serving an 18-year sentence for his role in an unsuccessful plot to kill his fellow Canadians – has no automatic right to a court hearing to stop the revocation. The denaturalization powers in the new citizenship act are not only much stronger than in the days when Canada could strip suspected Nazi war criminals of their citizenship if they lied about their past, but the process is almost entirely in the hands of the citizenship and immigration minister and his department rather than the courts. Mr. Gaya, 28, was sentenced for his role in the “Toronto 18” bomb plot when he was 18. His parents were born in Pakistan, and the Canadian government says they, and he, have Pakistani citizenship. The federal citizenship law does not allow the government to leave anyone stateless. Mr. Gaya says he has never applied for citizenship in Pakistan and is not a citizen of that country.
The Guardian (Charlottetown) – Jason Kenney says Refugee Efforts Focusing on Syrian Minorities
The federal government encourages the efforts of community and churches in P.E.I. seeking to help Syrian refugees, said the country’s former immigration minister. But, said Jason Kenney, now National Defence minister, his government is proceeding with caution to ensure suspected terrorists and their relatives are not allowed in the country. The federal Conservative government pledged earlier in the year to help resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees, but has since been openly criticized in the media and by the other federal party leaders for not doing more to help with the Syrian refugee crisis. Kenney, who was in Summerside Thursday to show his support for Egmont Conservative incumbent Gail Shea, spoke about the issue with TC Media. “We are going to be very focused on ensuring that those people are coming from the most vulnerable minority communities. These small ethnic and religious minorities in Syria typically do not go to the United Nations camps, which I’ve visited, because they would be persecuted. They are afraid to go to those camps,” said Kenney, the country’s citizenship and immigration minister from 2008 to 2013.
Our Windsor – Toronto Tory Candidate Joe Daniel Questions “So-Called” Refugees
A Conservative candidate in Toronto has spoken out on “so-called” refugees fleeing Syrian violence, doubting the need of some for food and water, and criticizing Middle East nations for inaction on the crisis. Joe Daniel, who recently stirred controversy for saying that a Muslim “agenda” was behind the stream of refugees into Europe, waded back into the issue on Tuesday at an all-candidates’ debate in north Toronto. During the event, sponsored by the Bayview Village Association, an audience member asked Daniel about his recent comments in which he warned that an “agenda” was behind the refugee crisis to move Muslims into Europe “to change these countries in a major way.” […] In his response, Daniel, who is seeking election in Don Valley North, took aim at Middle Eastern countries for not doing more to aid the displaced civilians fleeing the civil war in Syria. […] And Daniel also said that some refugees — many of them on a marathon trek across land and sea — have turned away Red Cross aid on religious grounds because it is marked with the distinctive cross. And he appeared to question whether they even needed it.
