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.
CBC – Ottawa’s Growing International Student Population Seeks Support
The Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre says it’s being approached for settlement and language services by an increasing number of international students from China, but it doesn’t have the funding to help them. International student enrolment is growing significantly on campuses in Ottawa, and China is the biggest source country. Chinese students in Ottawa are looking off-campus for help from those who speak Mandarin or Cantonese when they have landlord issues, get traffic tickets or need to see a doctor, said Sharon Kan, executive director of the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre. “We, on the one hand, are like a mentor and, on the other hand, like a second parent to these teenagers,” said Kan, who said the centre also ends up in conversations with students about relationship issues, the pressures of school and depression.
Toronto Star – Muslim, Newcomer Groups Join Coalition Supporting Sex-Ed
Organizations representing Muslim parents and recent immigrants have joined a new, diverse coalition of 144 groups that plans to fight the ongoing anti-sex-education boycotts and billboards with their own public service announcements and open appeal to Ontarians. “We have examined the new sex-ed curriculum and as people who live and breathe the health and well-being of Ontario’s diverse communities, we say that the curriculum stands on solid, honest ground,” says the Ontario Coalition Supporting Health Education, in an open letter. […] Maya Roy, executive director of Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto, said her agency got onside after some of its South Asian members worked on a project where “aunties and grandmothers were trained to go out and run sharing circles in homes and mosques and temples” about domestic violence, and “they were shocked to find out that you can have sexual assault and rape within a marriage” and wanted to inform their own children and grandchildren about that as well as issues like inappropriate touching, which is covered in the new curriculum.
CBC – Refugees Claim Canadian Policy Threatens Families
On what should have been their first full day of school this month, Bahareh Esfand’s children instead spent the day sitting in a federal courtroom watching their mother try to stay in Canada. […] Esfand’s mistake, it seems, was to visit her mother back in Iran. The Coquitlam, B.C., woman is one of dozens of people who claim that after years of building lives in Canada, their future is threatened by a 2012 change to Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Act aimed at catching bogus refugees. […] The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration is fighting in Federal Court to take away Esfand’s right to stay in Canada under a process known as cessation. The process allows the government to say a person’s refugee status has ceased under certain circumstances, including having “voluntarily re-availed” themselves of the protection of the country they fled. […] Esfand felt safe returning because while her husband was forced to flee Iran, the authorities were not seeking her. Canada has always had the ability to subject refugee claimants to the cessation process, but a change to the law in 2012 meant the determination automatically resulted in loss of permanent resident status.
Métro – Les promesses aux réfugiés soulèvent des doutes
La promesse du chef libéral Justin Trudeau d’accueillir 25 000 réfugiés syriens d’ici janvier 2016 sera difficile à tenir, soutient un expert. «Pour accueillir autant de réfugiés provenant d’un conflit en particulier, il faut absolument des agents d’Immigration Canada sur le terrain qui travaillent avec le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies, explique Olivier Arvisais, chargé de cours à l’UQAM et spécialiste des problématiques relatives aux réfugiés. Mais ces mécanismes-là ont disparu depuis longtemps.» Selon une analyse des données de Citoyenneté et Immigration Canada réalisée par Métro, 27 000 réfugiés en moyenne par année ont été accueillis au pays depuis 1980.
Radio-Canada – La Slovaquie conteste les quotas obligatoires de réfugiés
Le premier ministre de la Slovaquie a annoncé mercredi que son pays entendait contester la décision de l’Union européenne de répartir 120 000 demandeurs d’asile. Robert Fico compte s’adresser à un tribunal européen au Luxembourg. Il a expliqué aux journalistes, avant la tenue d’un sommet des leaders européens à Bruxelles, que son pays n’a aucune confiance envers l’efficacité du programme, et qu’il n’a donc aucunement l’intention de le respecter. Le président de l’Union européenne, Donald Tusk, a estimé qu’il est « crucial » que les pays européens cessent de se quereller au sujet des migrants et qu’ils s’entendent sur des mesures concrètes.
Le Devoir – Québec salue l’ouverture d’Ottawa face aux Syriens
Québec salue l’ouverture manifestée récemment par Ottawa en vue d’accélérer les procédures de parrainage de réfugiés syriens, tout en souhaitant que le gouvernement Harper aille encore plus loin. La ministre de l’Immigration, Kathleen Weil, a dit mardi qu’il fallait examiner différentes avenues pour accélérer encore davantage l’étude des dossiers, en vue d’accueillir au plus tôt des milliers de réfugiés syriens au Québec. En conférence de presse, entourée de plusieurs réfugiés d’origine syrienne installés en Estrie, Mme Weil s’est montrée persuadée d’atteindre son objectif d’héberger au Québec d’ici environ six mois 3650 migrants syriens qui fuient leur pays en guerre.
