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.
Huffington Post – Harper Government Asked to Delay Arrival of Refugees After Budget Restraints: Memo
The federal government sought to delay the arrival of refugees last year because it was running out of money. A memo was sent to all Canadian missions last November asking them to find people who could be held back from arriving in Canada until 2015 because there were too many in the pipeline and the budget for refugee resettlement was running dry. […]”When it became clear that more funds would be needed to assist the very generous movement of (government assisted refugees) last year, CIC reallocated resources from within existing reference levels to meet the needs of eligible arrivals,” Nancy Caron, a spokeswoman for the Citizenship and Immigration department, said in e-mail. The department did not answer questions about whether the Syrian commitment was the reason the budget was maxing out, nor how many people from elsewhere were held back, saying that those decisions were made by local missions and statistics were not available. “Logistics can sometimes require small numbers of people to wait, but these decisions are made locally and always with the best interests of the people involved taken into consideration,” Caron said.
Radio-Canada – Rencontre pleine d’espoir pour une travailleuse étrangère devenue tétraplégique
La nouvelle ministre albertaine de la Santé, Sarah Hoffman, espère faire avancer auprès de l’immigration canadienne le dossier de Maria Victoria Venancio, une travailleuse temporaire étrangère devenue tétraplégique. La ministre a rencontré jeudi celle qui a été victime d’un accident de la route à Edmonton en 2012 alors qu’elle se rendait au travail. La jeune femme de 29 ans, originaire des Philippines, n’a pas d’assurance médicale pour payer ses soins. Elle survit grâce à des dons, tout en essayant d’obtenir la résidence permanente au Canada. « Je me suis engagé à en discuter avec le ministre fédéral et à défendre ses intérêts », a fait savoir Sarah Hoffman. Elle n’a toutefois rien promis au sujet d’une couverture provinciale, mais s’engage à consulter son ministère pour trouver des solutions. Le précédent ministre de la Santé, Stephen Mandel, avait refusé une couverture à Maria Victoria Venancio.
Radio-Canada – Ottawa a retardé l’arrivée de réfugiés pour des raisons budgétaires
Le gouvernement fédéral a cherché l’an dernier à retarder l’arrivée au pays de réfugiés parce que les budgets pour les accueillir avaient fondu. Dans une note de service, Ottawa demandait en novembre dernier aux missions diplomatiques canadiennes à l’étranger de déterminer les dossiers qui pouvaient attendre jusqu’en 2015. Selon des documents obtenus en vertu de la Loi sur l’accès à l’information, les réfugiés syriens ont toutefois été exclus de cette requête. Certains observateurs critiquaient à cette époque la lenteur du gouvernement canadien quant à la crise des réfugiés syriens. Au moment de l’envoi diplomatique, en novembre 2014, moins de 500 réfugiés syriens s’étaient déjà installés au Canada, alors que le gouvernement fédéral avait promis d’en accueillir 1300 cette année-là. La plupart devaient être pris en charge par le secteur privé, alors que le gouvernement avait pris la responsabilité financière et logistique de l’installation de 200 d’entre eux. Le programme d’aide à l’établissement des réfugiés a un budget de 54,9 millions de dollars, selon le ministère de la Citoyenneté et de l’Immigration (CIC).
The federal government has announced “stiff new consequences” for employers who break the rules when hiring foreign workers, but employers say the lack of an independent appeal process could be time-consuming and costly for individuals and businesses alike. The changes, which take effect on Dec. 1, come after the government received feedback from 42 stakeholder groups on a discussion paper posted online last September outlining proposed consequences for employers found to have broken the rules. The new regulations, published in the Canada Gazette this month, apply to employers hiring foreign nationals under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program and to individuals seeking to hire foreign caregivers. […] The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which represents more than 109,000 small business owners, welcomed the amendments as “a step in the right direction” but also expressed concern around the lack of an independent appeal process. “Too much discretion is left in the hands of the minister and the bureaucrats,” said Richard Truscott, vice-president of the CFIB’s B.C. and Alberta chapter, in a phone interview with CBC News on Monday. Under the new rules, employers have at least 30 days to contest the findings of an investigation, but once a final determination is made, the only recourse available to employers is legal action.
Maclean’s – How Has Canada Fared on Resettling Syrian Refugees?
This January, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said Canada will resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2017. It’s been six months. How’s Canada doing? The short answer is: Don’t bother asking. But first, some background. In July 2013, then-immigration minister Jason Kenney promised Canada would welcome 1,300 Syrian refugees by the end of 2014. Canada missed the deadline, and the Conservative government absorbed quite a bit of public criticism as a result. It was clear, though, that the government had details about the number of arrivals on hand throughout the process. In December 2014, Alexander tabled in the House of Commons a written response to a question by NDP MP Paul Dewar indicating, as of three weeks previous, how many Syrian refugees had arrived and, of those, how many were privately sponsored and how many came with government assistance. Alexander or his spokesman also made public statements in December and January updating these figures. It stands to reason, then, that the government knows how many of the 10,000 promised spaces for Syrian refugees have so far been filled. They just won’t say.
The Manitoban – International Students Hit the Streets
University of Manitoba international students are planning a massive demonstration outside the Fort Garry administration building July 30 to protest what they view as unfair treatment in everything from tuition fees to entrance requirements for the faculty of engineering. […] The recently passed 2015-16 U of M budget includes a hike in the tuition fee differential for international undergraduate students, who will have to pay between 10 and 18 per cent more in tuition this year depending on their academic program. International graduate students were also subject to a fee increase, with their fee multiplier increasing by 10 per cent. Together, the two fee increases give the university $7.6 million in new revenue this year. The fee hike comes as the university has trimmed $14.4 million from the operating portion of its $701 million budget, leading some international students to lament the quality of education at the U of M.
