KAREN BEST
Local News - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 @ 12:00
A group of protesters brought a banner, signs bearing the image of an Algerian refugee and hope that Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration could help.
On Sept. 7 at 9:30 a.m., about 20 supporters of Abdelkader Belaouni stopped by Haldimand-Norfolk MP Diane Finley's office in Simcoe.
Four of them requested a meeting with the minister but were later told staff had left a message at her Ottawa office. When three staff members left while Norfolk County OPP stood by, one staff member said Finley was in Ottawa.
On Sept. 11, Finely said she was called back to Ottawa on Sept. 6 at the last minute. Receiving over 100 meeting requests a week, she said she could not possible meet with each person.
To read more:
http://www.dunnvillechronicle.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=690837&catname=Local+News
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Refugee advocate arrested at Lacolle border crossing
IRWIN BLOCK, The Gazette
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=02346cb7-998c-4036-ba6c-650ecbd92132
A prominent U.S. refugee advocate has been arrested by Canadian authorities as she was helping 12 Haitians seeking asylum in Canada.
Janet Hinshaw-Thomas, a director of Pennsylvania based Prime - Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees, was taken into custody around noon yesterday at the St. Bernard de Lacolle border crossing.
According to her Montreal lawyer, this is the first time in Canada a section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of June 2002 has been invoked against a human rights worker.
Section 117 makes it a crime to "organize, induce, aid or abet" the entry into Canada of persons who do not have a visa or passport.
There are no exceptions in the law for church-based or other human rights personnel, Erik Paradis, a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency, said yesterday.
Montreal lawyer Mitchell Goldberg, who is acting for Hinshaw-Thomas, said he knows of no other cases when "someone acting for humanitarian motives has been arrested" under the act.
"It was designed to deter smugglers and people who are trafficking, not people who are saving lives.
"Numerous organizations based in the U.S. and Canada have been bringing refugees to the border in co-operation with the border services agency - even given the power to schedule appointments with them."
Hinshaw-Thomas had warned the agency she was arriving with seven children and five adults, he added.
Goldberg likened her arrest to detaining Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who issued visas to thousands of Jews in Hungary in 1944, saving them from death camps.
"She's a hero - I don't think the Canadian people want us to prosecute people who are saving lives," he said.
Goldberg said the 12 Haitians will not be directed back to the U.S., but as of last night had not yet been admitted to Canada.
Haiti is among eight countries that are temporarily exempt from the safe third country agreement, allowing them to seek refugee status in Canada when they enter from the U.S.
If charged, Hinshaw-Thomas faces fines of up to $1 million or life in prison.
Monday, September 24, 2007
La lutte pour le statut de Kader s'est transporté en Ontario le 7 septembre dernier.
Par Marcel Sévigny
Impossible d'avoir quelque contact que ce soit avec la ministre de l'Immigration du Canada depuis maintenant 20 mois, une délégation avec en tête le comité d'appui à AbdelKader Belaouni s'est pointé le nez dans le comté de la ministre Diane Finley, vendredi le 7 septembre dernier.
On sait qu'en juin dernier une délégation s'était rendue à Ottawa pour tenter de rencontrer la Ministre, mais celle-ci avait bloqué tous les appels affluant à son bureau, refusant, sans le dire ouvertement, la demande de rencontre qui lui était adressée. Le comité avait profité de l'occasion pour faire une conférence de presse au Parlement accompagné du député local du Bloc Thierry St-Cyr et du critique du NPD en matière d'immigration qui supporte fermement l'obtention d'un statut d'AbdelKader.
Cette fois-ci la délégation voulait porter le message directement dans le comté de la Ministre, Les gens de Montréal ont du parcourir près de 700 kilomètres jusqu'à la ville de Simcoe dans le comté de Haldimand-Norfolk à l'ouest de Toronto, pour tenter d'entrer en contact avec la Ministre afin d'obtenir une date de rencontre. C'est le principal objectif à court terme.
La délégation au nombre de 25 personnes dont 2 personnes de la Pointe (moi-même comme citoyen du quartier et du collectif La Pointe libertaire et Mary Foster) était composée d'une dizaine de personnes de Montréal, dont l'avocat de Kader, et des représentantEs de groupes de la région de Toronto. Quelques syndicats locaux des Travailleurs canadiens de l'automobile, des groupes anti-racistes, anti-pauvreté et anti-guerre, la section de Toronto de "personne n'est illégal", des représentants de certaines communautés religieuses, etc.
4 personnes ont pénétré dans le bureau de comté de Diane Finley, dont moi-même. Comme nous nous y attendions la Ministre n'était pas sur les lieux. Les 2 employéEs, un homme et une femme ont commencé par nous affirmer que ce bureau n'était que pour les dossiers des résidents du comté. À partir de ce moment notre demande fut qu'une des personnes demande par téléphone au bureau de la Ministre une rencontre avec le comité.
Refus total. Peu après, comme s'il y avait un bouton d'alarme qui pouvait être déclencher sous un bureau, un policier de l'OPP (Ontario provincial police) est arrivé et a pris le relais dans les "négociations". Bien formé à ce genre de discussion semble-t-il, il a tenté de statuer que les 2 parties s'étaient expliquée afin de nous retourner dehors. Comme nous avons refusé de bouger (aucune occupation n'était prévue) nous avons proposé un "compromis", à savoir que l'employée, qui nous avais expliqué qu'elle ne pouvait pas téléphoner au bureau de la Ministre, fasse un appel directement devant nous.
Sous l'insistance du policier, elle a communiqué au bureau de la Ministre avec la demande de rencontre du comité. On nous promettait une réponse dans la ½ heure suivante. 30 minutes plus tard, nous sommes retourné à l'intérieur et aucune réponse, semble-t-il, n'avais été retournée de la part du bureau de la Ministre. Revenant à l'extérieur nous avons alors discuté de stratégie et lorsque la délégation a voulu revenir dans le bureau les portes étaient verrouillées et le sont restées jusqu'à notre départ quelques heures plus tard. Pendant cette période un petit groupe est allé au centre-ville de Simcoe pour distribuer des dépliants d'info sur le dossier AbdelKader.
Le journal local et une radio locale ont couvert l'événement sur les lieux.
Rappelons qu'AbdelKader, qui fait face à un ordre de déportation, est réfugié à l'église St-Gabriel depuis maintenant 616 jours et doit compter sur le support direct de la communauté locale pour la nourriture, la santé (il souffre du diabète et est aveugle), les visites de soutien, etc.
Un appel
Nous savons que durant l'été les visites à Kader sont beaucoup plus espacées et son moral est actuellement au plus bas. Nous lançons un appel aux citoyenNEs et groupes du quartier pour augmenter les formes de soutien direct afin de minimiser les impacts de cette "prison sans barreaux" et participer aux pressions organisées par le comité d'appui à AbdelKader.
Quant au collectif La Pointe libertaire, il a décidé d'organiser une activité de soutien direct cet automne tout en continuant à supporter activement le comité d'appui à AbdelKader.
Pour en savoir plus: www.soutienpourkader.net
Refugee overload
Mayor appeals to Ottawa for help as city faces social services crunch
Doug Schmidt and Dave Battagello, Windsor Star
Published: Thursday, September 20, 2007
JUST ARRIVED: Concepcion Montiel and her daughter Perla, 2, arrived in Windsor this week looking for refugee status. They spent the past few years in Naples, Fla.
- Scott Webster, Windsor Star
With city shelters full and a surge of further refugee claimants expected to flood into Windsor, Mayor Eddie Francis is pleading for financial help from Ottawa.
"When there is a possibility of adding thousands to the local social assistance system as a result of refugee claimants crossing the border into Windsor, we will become overwhelmed and our current resources will not suffice," Francis said in a letter sent Wednesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Over the past three weeks, 45 families and 31 individuals -- approximately 200 people -- entered Canada at the Detroit River crossings and applied in Windsor for shelter and social assistance after filing refugee claims with the Canada Border Services Agency. Municipal agencies dealing with the sudden influx of mainly Mexican refugee applicants are renting hotel rooms and bracing for predicted thousands more to come.
"We don't have the means, ability or capacity to deal with this additional cost. We are not able to deal with this potential crisis locally," Francis wrote Harper.
"I don't believe that Windsor's residents and taxpayers should have to foot the bill for U.S. immigration policy," Francis told The Star. He was referring to the suspected source of the problem -- a recent crackdown on illegal immigrants in economically struggling regions of the U.S. South.
With the bulk of the latest arrivals being long-time Mexican illegals dislodged from their homes and workplaces in southwestern Florida, fingers are being pointed at unscrupulous outfits charging money and then directing desperate individuals and their families toward the Windsor border crossing.
"We are aware of these operations -- they have been advertising incorrect and false information," said Marina Wilson, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Wilson said Canadian immigration authorities have started contacting the Mexican and Haitian communities in Florida, as well as local media there, to get the word out that nothing has changed in Canadian refugee policy.
"The fact someone wants to come here for better economic opportunity or a better quality of life ... that's no basis for a successful refugee claim," said Immigration Refugee Board (IRB) spokesman Charles Hawkins.
The Canadian Council for Refugees, a non-profit organization which helps refugees, has also issued a warning about the scams and has asked the federal government to intervene.
But a group operating out of Naples, Fla., vowed to continue sending the so-called economic refugees to Windsor.
"They ask, 'Is Canada an option?' and I say, 'Yes, it is an option,'" Jacques Sinjuste of the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center said in a phone interview Wednesday. For a US$300 "donation" (most of those interviewed in Windsor claim they paid US$400), JHCC staff download forms off the Internet, help applicants fill them out and give directions on how to get to the Canadian border.
Sinjuste said he's simply providing a "referral" service.
"Most of the time when the people come, they say they've heard something (about Canada). I say that I've heard the same thing," he said.
Concepcion Montiel, who arrived Monday with her husband and two-year-old daughter Perla, said the family decided to move after watching a news report on the Spanish channel Univision, which said Mexicans needed only a valid passport or birth certificate to gain legal status in Canada.
Her husband worked in construction but hadn't been able to find employment recently because of the downturn in the economy. "He wasn't working because there weren't any jobs available," Montiel said through a translator.
Montiel said she paid $400 to come to Canada in a bus along with another two families, but that the money covered only the cost of applying for refugee status.
Jacquie Rumiel, director of programs for new Canadians at the YMCA, where refugee claimants are referred by Windsor's border guards, said the new people she's seeing are mostly Mexicans coming from Florida.
To be successful, refugee claimants must prove they are fleeing persecution at home, something most of the Mexicans arriving in Windsor would be hard-pressed to do. The IRB's Hawkins said there was only a 13 per cent acceptance rate of refugee claims filed by Mexican nationals during the first six months of the year, compared to an overall rate of 47 per cent.
But the average processing time for a refugee claim in Canada is currently 14.2 months, said Hawkins, a period during which the applicant is eligible for financial and other support. A failed claimant then also has the right to seek leave to appeal his or her rejection to federal court.
Despite the high number of failed applications cited by the IRB, Sinjuste said he gets calls to his Naples centre from "a lot of people" who've arrived in Windsor. "They say everything is OK -- they are doing good, going to schools, going to work," he said.
Sinjuste said he was visited last week by an official from the Canadian consulate general in Miami but couldn't remember if he was told to stop helping economic refugees go to Canada.
"I don't think they tell me that," he said. Federal bureaucrats confirmed the meeting but said they couldn't divulge details.
Others are warning about the types of activities engaged in by Sinjuste.
"The way he's misleading the most vulnerable is infuriating," said Pegg Roberts, executive director of Detroit's Freedom House, which runs a shelter and assists asylum seekers with their refugee claims. Sinjuste said he uses the Freedom House website to download refugee claim forms and advises the people he assists to seek help there.
"I do not help economic refugees," said Roberts, adding her non-profit organization assists the fleeing victims of torture and war crimes and has no affiliation with the JHCC.
"This is a problem the U.S. has allowed to create. It's really unfair for Canada to have to face this," said MP Joe Comartin (NDP -- Windsor-Tecumseh), his party's public safety and national security critic.
He predicting that, "with few exceptions," most of these "economic claimants" will eventually be sent back.
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=f77f322d-bae1-478c-b641-c8674c1398e0
Charkaoui demande à nouveau la liberté
Adil Charkaoui
Le Marocain Adil Charkaoui se retrouvera devant les tribunaux, lundi, pour demander la réouverture de son dossier et l'abandon des restrictions qui lui sont imposées depuis 2005 en vertu d'un certificat de sécurité.
Le présumé terroriste montréalais compte faire valoir devant la Cour fédérale que les conditions qui encadrent sa liberté sont invivables et injustes dans la mesure où il clame depuis 2003 son innocence.
Les avocats de M. Charkaoui, soupçonné par Ottawa d'être un agent dormant d'Al-Qaïda, tenteront de convaincre la justice canadienne de prendre en considération une lettre de rétractation de son principal dénonciateur, le terroriste Ahmed Ressam.
M. Ressam, incarcéré aux États-Unis pour avoir tenté de faire exploser, en 1999, l'aéroport de Los Angeles, en Californie, a fait parvenir, voilà quelques mois, une lettre au Journal de Montréal dans laquelle il dit avoir menti aux enquêteurs canadiens en identifiant Adil Charkaoui sur une photo prise dans un camp d'entraînement d'Al-Qaïda en Afghanistan.
C'est d'ailleurs en se basant en partie sur ce témoignage que les services secrets canadiens auraient justifié leur demande pour mettre Adil Charkaoui sous les verrous en 2003.
Et le mois dernier, les procureurs du gouvernement ont affirmé que si Ahmed Ressam reconnaissait avoir menti une première fois, il pourrait tout aussi bien avoir menti de nouveau en essayant de disculper M. Charkaoui.
Adil Charkaoui, emprisonné pendant 21 mois avant d'être libéré sous de strictes conditions, en 2005, demande, entre autres, à pouvoir enlever le bracelet GPS qui lui est imposé jour et nuit depuis sa sortie de prison. Ottawa exige aussi à ce résident permanent d'origine marocaine d'être accompagné en tout temps lorsqu'il sort de chez lui et de ne plus utiliser Internet.
Un procureur du gouvernement fédéral a expliqué, toujours le mois dernier, que les conditions « invivables » qui sont imposées à Adil Charkaoui n'ont pas empêché ce dernier, outre de porter sa cause devant la Cour suprême canadienne, de finir ses études, de se trouver du travail comme professeur de français et d'aller visiter de la famille à l'extérieur de Montréal.
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/National/2007/09/24/001-charkaoui-cour-lundi.shtml
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
France: une 4e loi sur l'immigration en débat
Luc Perrot
Agence France-Presse
Paris
Les députés français ont entamé mardi l'examen d'un projet de loi durcissant les conditions d'immigration, le quatrième de ce type en quatre ans, dont un amendement introduisant des tests ADN pour les candidats au regroupement familial suscite particulièrement la polémique.
Présenté par Brice Hortefeux, le ministre de l'Immigration, de l'Intégration, de l'Identité nationale et du Codéveloppement, le projet entend «mieux encadrer le regroupement familial», dont il durcit les conditions.«Nous devons répondre à l'attente des Français qui nous demandent de maîtriser ces flux migratoires pour préserver l'équilibre de notre communauté nationale», et poursuivre la «rupture» avec le «chaos migratoire», a déclaré M. Hortefeux en présentant le texte à l'assemblée,
Le président Nicolas Sarkozy, qui avait déjà durci la législation alors qu'il était ministre de l'Intérieur, a promis une immigration «maîtrisée» et «choisie» lors de sa campagne présidentielle, et son gouvernement, qui s'est fixé un objectif de 25.000 expulsions par an, a accentué la pression policière sur les étrangers en situation irrégulière.
Le texte examiné par les députés durcit les conditions de ressources pour le regroupement familial et prévoit une «évaluation de connaissance de la langue et des valeurs de la République».
Un point qui rencontre l'approbation de 74% des Français, selon un sondage publié mardi par le journal Le Figaro.
Mais avant même la discussion du texte à l'Assemblée ou le parti de droite UMP détient la majorité absolue (314 des 577 sièges), la polémique a enflé autour d'un amendement qui introduit la possibilité de tests ADN sur les candidats au regroupement familial.
Son initiateur, le député Thierry Mariani (UMP, droite au pouvoir) argue que 11 pays européens y ont déjà recours pour prouver en cas de doute des services consulaires la filiation de ressortissants originaires de certains pays, africains notamment.
L'amendement a soulevé un tollé de protestations de l'opposition de gauche, des associations et ONG humanitaires et de défense des droits de l'Homme, ainsi que de plusieurs scientifiques de renom. Et des remous jusqu'au sein même du parti présidentiel et du gouvernement.
Au point que l'UMP et la présidence se sont réservé la possibilité de faire machine arrière. Il ne s'agit que d'une «piste de réflexion», a dit le porte-parole de M. Sarkozy.
Secrétaire d'État à la Ville, Fadela Amara, issue de l'immigration, s'était dite «heurtée» par des tests ADN qui jettent «l'opprobre sur les étrangers qui veulent venir chez nous». Le ministre des Affaires étrangères, Bernard Kouchner, venu du Parti socialiste, a déclaré que le principe des tests ADN ne lui «plaisait pas».
Le groupe socialiste à l'Assemblée a pour sa part dénoncé une «abjection morale complètement contraire aux principes de la République», annonçant qu'il allait demander que soit saisi le comité consultatif national d'éthique.
Amnesty International, la Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme (Licra), France Terre d'Asile et la Ligue des droits de l'Homme (LDH) notamment ont exprimé leur désapprobation.
L'amendement a aussi suscité un tollé chez les scientifiques. Le collectif «Sauvons la recherche» a dénoncé un «texte inacceptable qui ouvrirait la porte à d'autres abandons». Le généticien Axel Kahn, dans une tribune publiée par le journal Le Monde, a dénoncé une «régression radicale» et des dispositions «pas digne de notre pays et de son peuple».
Un autre ajout au texte devrait susciter le débat: celui levant sous certaines conditions l'interdiction en vigueur en France du recensement des origines raciales ou ethniques lors du recueil de données statistiques.
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070918/CPMONDE/70918085/1014/CPMONDE
Immigration au Québec : besoin de 60 000 immigrants par année pour éviter la crise
Le Soleil
Québec
L’immigration sera la seule source de croissance de la population québécoise d’ici 15 ans si le taux de fécondité des Québécois demeure le même. Et à ce rythme, la main-d’œuvre québécoise diminuera à compter de 2014, provoquant des manques à gagner pour les entreprises, pour les revenus des citoyens et pour ceux du gouvernement. Un scénario qui accroîtra les pressions sur les finances publiques, en plus de mener à une baisse significative du poids du Québec au sein du Canada.
Tels sont les principaux constats du document de consultation 2008-2010 pour la planification de l’immigration au Québec, qui fera l’objet d’une étude de trois jours à compter d’aujourd’hui en commission parlementaire. Dans le contexte des travaux de la commission Bouchard-Taylor sur les accommodements raisonnables, ce document forcera les partis politiques, notamment l’ADQ, à préciser leurs vues.
Les données les plus inquiétantes portent sur la main-d’œuvre nécessaire au Québec au cours des prochaines décennies. La seule façon d’éviter une baisse de cette main-d’œuvre sera de porter à 60 000 le nombre annuel d’immigrants. Les auteurs de l’étude reconnaissent qu’une telle hausse pourrait causer des problèmes s’il y a engorgement du marché de l’emploi. Mais ils signalent, par opposition, qu’une diminution de la population en âge de travailler provoquera un ralentissement de la croissance économique et une baisse du niveau de vie. En outre, ils estiment que les objectifs d’une croissance élevée de l’immigration à 60 000 personnes par année seront difficiles à atteindre, en raison des contraintes entourant la sélection et l’admission des immigrants.
Débat politique
Les niveaux de l’immigration font l’objet d’un débat politique depuis que les jeunes libéraux ont suggéré d’augmenter les quotas. Mario Dumont, qui a gagné des points en faisant bataille sur les accommodements raisonnables, se défendait hier de demander une baisse de l’immigration au Québec. Mais selon lui, le gouvernement doit améliorer l’intégration des 46 000 immigrants accueillis actuellement, avant de majorer substantiellement les quotas. Le chef de l’ADQ a entrouvert la porte à une hausse de l’immigration à 50 000 personnes, mais il n’appuierait pas une telle mesure tant que l’intégration actuelle des immigrants ne sera pas accélérée. À l’issue du conseil général du Parti libéral à Montréal, en fin de semaine, Jean Charest a statué que la croissance économique du Québec était intimement liée à notre capacité d’accroître l’immigration.
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070918/CPSOLEIL/70917231/6584/CPSOLEIL
Canada’s New Government to expand CBSA training facility in Rigaud
National 2007
Rigaud, Quebec, September 11, 2007 --The Honourable
Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, and the
Honourable Michael M. Fortier, Minister of Public
Works and Government Services and Minister Responsible
for the Region of Montréal, today announced plans to
expand the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA)
Learning Centre in Rigaud, Quebec, with an investment
of $50 million.
The renovations, which will be implemented over three
years, will allow the Centre to train approximately
220 more new recruits each year and to operate the new
CBSA firearms training program. The renovations
include a new indoor firing range, a multi-purpose
building and expanded residential capacity.
“CBSA officers help to ensure the safety and
prosperity of Canadians by keeping our border secure,
which is why Canada’s New Government is proudly
investing in new training programs and facilities,”
said Minister Day. “With this expansion, the Rigaud
facility will play an even greater role in training
and qualifying officers, including offering the new
firearms training.”
This project is a key component of the $101 million
initiative announced by Canada’s New Government in
Budget 2006 to begin arming CBSA officers and
eliminating work-alone situations. The expansion will
allow the CBSA to incorporate firearms training into
its Port of Entry Recruit Training program at the
Centre.
The CBSA Learning Centre is the Agency’s national
training facility, and it currently employs some 260
employees and contractors. Some 850 new recruits are
expected to be trained per year once the renovations
are complete, up from the 630 new recruits currently
being trained annually.
“The CBSA Learning Centre is a major local employer,
and the expansion project will bring even more
benefits to the local community,” said Minister
Fortier. “I am pleased that Canada’s New Government
has invested in this region’s future prosperity and in
Canada’s border security.”
The CBSA is responsible for facilitating the access of
people and goods to and from Canada, and for providing
integrated border services that support national
security and public safety priorities.
For more information, please visit the CBSA’s Web Site
at www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca.
-30-
For media information:
Mélisa Leclerc
Director of Communications
Office of the Honourable Stockwell Day
Minister of Public Safety
(613) 991-2863
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Chechen girls die entering Poland
Polish border guards have found the bodies of three Chechen sisters - the youngest aged six - who died in the mountains on the border with Ukraine.
The guards found their exhausted mother on Thursday clutching a fourth child - a two-year-old son - near the border.
They had been trying to enter Poland illegally. They had spent four days in the cold and wet, the woman said.
The bodies were found 1,100m (3,600 ft) up a mountain in the Bieszczady range. The girls were aged six, 10 and 13.
Thousands have fled Chechnya in more than a decade of conflict.
The mother and surviving child are now in hospital.
Commission Bouchard-Taylor: les experts divisés
 |
 érard Bouchard, coprésident de la commission Bouchard-Taylor, écoute un membre du public, lors de la première session, tenue à Gatineau lundi. |
La Presse
Ce n’est pas la crise, mais il y a clairement un malaise. À l’issue d’une semaine d’audiences, quelques membres du comité conseil de la Commission sur les accommodements raisonnables expriment des réserves quant à l’approche adoptée pour scruter l’opinion publique sur cette question délicate.
Ils craignent que, en ratissant très large, la commission Bouchard-Taylor ne finisse par laisser le débat dévier sur la question de l’immigration – au risque d’exacerber les tensions au lieu de les apaiser.
Dès le départ, Marie McAndrew, spécialiste des relations interethniques à l’Université de Montréal, estimait que la Commission adoptait une «perspective trop large», qu’elle juge «extrêmement dangereuse».
Les premières audiences n’ont rien fait pour diminuer ses craintes. La Commission a pris selon elle un pari très périlleux en choisissant de donner autant de place aux «inquiétudes de gens des régions, qui ne vivent pas la diversité, au lieu de parler surtout des problèmes des Montréalais qui font face à la diversité et ont besoin d’outils pour la gérer».
Résultat: «Le débat dérape sur la question de l’immigration. La peur de l’autre est un atavisme très ancré chez les humains, c’est un petit démon. Quand on l’attise, c’est difficile de ramener ça à quelque chose de civique», dit-elle en commentant quelques opinions entendues cette semaine.
Il fait notamment référence aux propos d’un participant qui a affirmé avoir «enduré» les musulmans en Égypte et ne pas avoir envie de les «endurer» au Québec – des propos qui l’ont mis mal à l’aise.
«Il me semble qu’il faudrait que les commissaires aient le courage de dire que certains propos ne sont pas souhaitables. On n’est pas obligés d’accepter des propos racistes», a-t-il dit à La Presse.
Parmi les autres, quatre se sont montrés préoccupés par l’approche adoptée. Les quatre autres estimaient au contraire que la Commission avait eu raison de tout mettre sur la table – des inquiétudes soulevées par l’immigration jusqu’à la question de l’identité. Tous ont souligné qu’ils s’exprimaient à titre personnel, et non au nom de la Commission.
«La réflexion sur les accommodements doit être faite dans un contexte plus large. S’il y a un malaise (entre majorité et minorités), il faut aller le chercher, dire les choses clairement», affirme Aïda Kamar, qui dirige l’organisme Vision Diversité.
Elle se dit «ravie» du ton des audiences, qui, à quelques rares exceptions près selon elle, se sont déroulées dans un climat serein.
C’est aussi l’avis de Jacques Beauchemin, sociologue à l’UQAM, qui reconnaît toutefois que l’approche comporte des risques de dérapage en étalant «préjugés et inimitiés» sur la place publique. Le plus grand risque, selon lui, serait une mise au banc de la minorité musulmane. Mais, tout compte fait, il dit avoir été frappé par le «respect des différences» qui a marqué cette première semaine d’audiences.
Mélange des genres
Le philosophe Daniel Weinstock a suivi les audiences à Gatineau et s’est «raidi» à quelques reprises devant des propos dérangeants. Lui aussi croit qu’il aurait mieux valu restreindre le mandat de la Commission. Dans un article qu’il signe dans le dernier numéro de L’actualité, il fait d’ailleurs une mise en garde contre une confusion entre le débat sur les accommodements et les questions du multiculturalisme ou de l’immigration.
Ce mélange des genres s’est pourtant bel et bien produit pendant la semaine d’audiences – mais M. Weinstock pense tout compte fait que les deux présidents n’avaient pas vraiment le choix. «S’ils avaient voulu restreindre le débat, ils se seraient fait accuser de vouloir le censurer.»
Autre membre du comité, Rachida Azdouz, vice-doyenne de la faculté d’éducation permanente de l’Université de Montréal, croit elle aussi qu’il aurait été «plus prudent» d’axer le débat sur la place de la religion dans la sphère publique – puisque c’est là que se produisent les tensions.
Mais, selon elle, «des débordements auraient eu lieu de toute façon».
Même si le comité est divisé sur l’approche adoptée par la Commission, ses membres s’entendent tous sur une chose: maintenant que celle-ci est lancée, il faut aller jusqu’au bout. «Ce n’est quand même pas un désastre, il faut espérer pour le mieux», dit Marie McAndrew. D’autres mentionnent que le succès de l’exercice dépend de la manière dont les commissaires réussiront à faire la synthèse des consultations.
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070915/CPACTUALITES/70914270/5358/CPPRESSE
Immigration raid a crisis school hadn't planned for
Cincinnati Enquirer:
DENISE SMITH AMOS 
At Heritage Hill Elementary, where 65 percent of the students are Hispanic, the first day of school was nearly a crisis.
That day, Aug. 28, immigration agents raided Koch Foods, a poultry packing plant in Fairfield, and arrested 161 suspected illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and other countries.
Tianay Outlaw, principal at Heritage Hill, knew that some of her 310 students would be affected. With 45 percent of her students designated as "limited English proficient," Outlaw feared some youngster would be related to the detained workers.
"We found out almost immediately about the raid, because parents who worked there ... they called Heritage Hill," Outlaw said.
"One father said, 'Please, take care of the children,' " said Sonia Velez Rodriquez, a parent liaison and education aide at the school.
But which students? Who was going home after school to an empty house or apartment because of the raid? Whose families would be packing and leaving in fear, Outlaw wondered.
She tried to find out discreetly.
Because it was the first day of school, most parents hadn't yet filled out contact cards, indicating place of employment and emergency numbers.
Outlaw visited classrooms and asked students to raise their hands if they had parents working as a nurse. Or as a teacher. In a restaurant. Or elsewhere in the food business.
When she asked about Koch foods, five students raised their hands, though Outlaw suspected there were more.
"I was really trying to get information from them without alerting them or getting them nervous," she said.
When school ended and students boarded buses, teachers and school staff followed in cars, watching as children disembarked in neighborhoods and apartment complexes with high immigrant populations.
"We wanted to be sure of how many students would be affected and how many are not coming back," said Lynn Yosua, school psychologist.
Every child was met by a parent or relative, Outlaw said.
"We did see parents who had loaded up their cars and were ready to leave," Outlaw said. "They met us at the bus stop."
Some parents said they were unsure if their child would return to school; they didn't feel safe going home, said Velez Rodriquez.
"They took the most important things and they were gone," she said.
The next day at school about 20 kids were absent, but Outlaw said it was unclear how many absences were because of the raid.
Over the next few days, most students returned to school, Outlaw said, even though a few were not living at home but with relatives or friends.
Teachers talked with classes about how the raid affected some families, saying that some children may have to go back to the country their parents came from.
Only one student asked to speak with a school counselor.
"One student had nightmares because a family member was detained," said Lynn Yosua, school psychologist.
Yosua said Heritage Hill has crisis plans in place for most conventional threats to schools, such as natural disasters, but there's nothing in the crisis books about immigration raids.
"The unnerving thing was that this was the first day of school," Outlaw said. "But everyone went above and beyond the call of duty. Everyone had a common focus; it was the safety of our children."
He paints seagulls and longs to be free
Shree Kumar Rai lives his days confined in a church, fearing for his life if he returns to Nepal and afraid Canada will continue to reject him
Kelly Egan, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, September 16, 2007Shree Kumar Rai has been trapped in a church for seven months, spending his days in a cinder-block room with lime-green furniture and the chatterings of CBC radio. When Mr. Rai left Nepal in 1996, his son was a boy. Now he is 14 and nearly a man. For his 11 years in Canada, the father has had only one steady presence in his life -- a gnawing absence.
But he has found a way to bring the outside world in. Mr. Rai has learned to paint.
A failed refugee claimant, Mr. Rai, 44, was ordered deported by Feb. 27, the same day he voluntarily sought sanctuary inside First Unitarian Congregation, an activist church along the Ottawa River near Woodroffe Avenue.
He is confined to the grounds here and an elaborate network of 75 volunteers provides round-the-clock company, even sleeping in the next room on a rotating schedule.
For up to six hours a day, Mr. Rai paints landscapes -- trees, mountains, ponds, flowers -- mostly from images he finds on the Internet. His talent is evident. One work in particular delights him: a painting depicting a sea-gull flying toward the setting sun on a palm-treed beach.
Yes, that is how he dreams of himself. Free as a bird.
First Unitarian held something of pep-rally and update for Mr. Rai on Friday evening. It consisted of a short theatrical performance and a talk by Peter Showler, a lawyer and academic who is the former chairman of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
Mr. Rai himself spoke before a crowd of perhaps 100, doing his best in patchy English. He held the microphone in his right hand, left hand jammed in his pocket, eyes often fixed on the floor.
He wore shiny new white running shoes, as though anxious to make tracks. Behind him, visible through a wall of windows, the tree-tops flapped noisily away in a hard wind.
He was a school teacher in Nepal from 1987 to 1990. During a protest against the killing of a political leader in 1993, he was jailed and beaten. In 1995, he was arrested again and accused of smuggling arms into the country.
In February 1996, his home was raided. Police seized his father who would later die of injuries suffered while in custody.
"He was my father and he died because of me," he told the audience.
Mr. Rai, fearing for his life, fled to Canada via Moscow, settling in Montreal, where he learned to become a sushi chef.
His refugee claim, meanwhile, was twice rejected. Mr. Rai is worried about retribution if he returns to his homeland and longs to bring his wife and son to Canada.
Mr. Showler, with 25 years experience in immigration law, delivered a concise analysis of the case. He was dressed entirely in black, save for T-shirt with a white iconic image above the words: "Einstein was a refugee." Mr. Showler stopped short of saying Mr. Rai is a bona fide refugee, but made a persuasive argument for faulty process.
"I think he's been treated badly by the system," said Mr. Showler, chairman of the refugee board for three years and a judge on hundreds of cases.
It was four years before Mr. Rai had his first hearing, an unreasonable length of time, he argued. The delay aside, the claimant did not have adequate legal counsel. This led to "a clear error of law" that was corrected on appeal.
The second hearing took three more years, a delay he called inexcusable. "Clearly, he was lost in the shuffle and that's not his fault, it's the fault of the system." Mr. Showler also found portions of the second ruling bizarre and illogical. "I don't think he received a good second hearing." He said Canada has moved to a system where it permits refugee hearings to be heard by a single panel member. It is a great way to clear up a backlog, he said, but the government failed to act on the second part of the promised initiative -- an efficient appeal system.
"There is no appeal of single-member decision, even though Parliament said there should be and that's inexcusable," said Mr. Showler.
"The real concern is nobody knows the number of badly decided cases by single members that are not being caught by this application-for-leave process to the Federal Court. This is the scary part." Mr. Showler said refugee board judges have one of the toughest jobs in the Canadian judiciary. There is no paper trail for victims of torture and their stories are often impossible to corroborate, while language barriers and stress disorders can make their narratives that much weaker.
The work can be gratifying, however.
"You hear tremendously heart-breaking stories. The other side of being a member, when you hear a story that you believe, and conclude the person is a refugee, it's fabulous to be able to say, 'yes, you're safe. You've undergone these horrific experiences in your life, but you are safe.' "There are a lot of tears in refugee hearing rooms, as well, but some of those are tears of relief and joy." A community rally for Mr. Rai is being planned for Oct. 24.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=a1cfd916-d464-4c36-8a53-deec545573e1&p=1
Deportee can stay to change religion
National Post
Conversion Would Be Harmed By Removal: Judge
Adrian Humphreys, National Post
Published: Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Declaring "everyone has the right to change religion," a federal court judge is allowing a failed refugee claimant who was ordered out of Canada after a criminal conviction to remain in the country to continue a religious conversion.
Federal Court of Canada Judge Sean Harrington stopped this Saturday's deportation of a Christian man from Brazil so he can complete his conversion to Judaism alongside his Jewish wife and his sponsoring rabbi.
The ruling, in favour of Diogo Cichaczewski, is believed to be the first of its kind.
"While Canada's focus is on removing an individual who has no legal status here, an unfortunate repercussion is that his conversion would be delayed; in other words, arguably impaired," Judge Harrington ruled.
"How can the harm arising from a roadblock in Mr. Cichaczewski's right to celebrate the religion of his choice be measured?"
Championing the freedom to change religion as a right to be protected by the courts strikes some as a misapplication of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"The Charter guarantees freedom of religion and freedom to practise that religion and express that religion in a public way. But there is nothing in Canada's legislation or in the Charter that guarantees the completion of a private religious process or guarantees one can do that in a particular place," said Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer.
"I would argue that a religious conversion is intrinsically a private act between an applicant and the clergy. Nothing would prevent him from completing his conversion in Brazil.
"This is an enormous stretch from what the Charter says," Mr. Karas said.
Mr. Cichaczewski, 24, came to Canada in 2002 and claimed refugee status, saying he feared revenge from a drug dealer who was convicted in Brazil because of information he supplied to police, according to the ruling.
His refugee claim was later declared abandoned.
In 2004, Toronto police charged Mr. Cichaczewski after an undercover officer spotted what he thought was a drug deal taking place on a street corner.
Instead, Toronto police say they found stolen credit cards and duplicate cards made from stolen personal information being sold. He was convicted of several misdeeds, including possession of stolen property, possession of the proceeds of crime and credit card and computer fraud offences. He received a suspended sentence and one year's probation on each.
Last year Mr. Cichaczewski married a Toronto woman who is Jewish, and he began the process of converting to Judaism.
In the meantime, the government moved to send Mr. Cichaczewski back to Brazil and he made two appeals for reconsideration. Both of his appeals were refused and he was scheduled for removal on Saturday.
Mr. Cichaczewski filed two more legal actions; one is a request for a judicial review of his removal and the other asking the court to allow him to remain in Canada pending the outcome of that review. It was that second request that Judge Harrington has ruled on.
"I have decided to grant the stay on religious grounds," Judge Harrington writes in his ruling.
"Everyone has the right to believe, or not to believe. Everyone has the right to be a member of an organized religion, subject to the tenets of that faith, or not. Everyone has the right to give public witness to faith. Everyone has the right to change religion," he writes in his ruling.
Mr. Cichaczewski has completed the classes necessary to convert to Judaism, which typically lasts a full year. Usually a conversion would then require circumcision, if a male applicant was not already circumcised, a ceremonial bathing and an appearance before a council of rabbis to be complete.
"His sincerity has not been put into question. It is important to emphasize that this is not an opportunistic conversion," Judge Harrington writes.
"The [immigration hearing] officer was of the view that nothing prevented Mr. Cichaczewski from converting to Judaism while back in Brazil. That may be so, but at the very least his conversion would be interrupted and delayed."
Canada Border Services Agency now await the outcome of Mr. Cichaczewski's remaining judicial appeal, which is based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
"We are obliged to abide by the court's decision," said Anna Pape, a CBSA spokeswoman.
Mr. Cichaczewski's lawyer, Barbara Jackman, could not be reached yesterday.
Conversion Would Be Harmed By Removal: Judge
Adrian Humphreys, National Post
Published: Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Declaring "everyone has the right to change religion," a federal court judge is allowing a failed refugee claimant who was ordered out of Canada after a criminal conviction to remain in the country to continue a religious conversion.
Federal Court of Canada Judge Sean Harrington stopped this Saturday's deportation of a Christian man from Brazil so he can complete his conversion to Judaism alongside his Jewish wife and his sponsoring rabbi.
The ruling, in favour of Diogo Cichaczewski, is believed to be the first of its kind.
"While Canada's focus is on removing an individual who has no legal status here, an unfortunate repercussion is that his conversion would be delayed; in other words, arguably impaired," Judge Harrington ruled.
"How can the harm arising from a roadblock in Mr. Cichaczewski's right to celebrate the religion of his choice be measured?"
Championing the freedom to change religion as a right to be protected by the courts strikes some as a misapplication of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"The Charter guarantees freedom of religion and freedom to practise that religion and express that religion in a public way. But there is nothing in Canada's legislation or in the Charter that guarantees the completion of a private religious process or guarantees one can do that in a particular place," said Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer.
"I would argue that a religious conversion is intrinsically a private act between an applicant and the clergy. Nothing would prevent him from completing his conversion in Brazil.
"This is an enormous stretch from what the Charter says," Mr. Karas said.
Mr. Cichaczewski, 24, came to Canada in 2002 and claimed refugee status, saying he feared revenge from a drug dealer who was convicted in Brazil because of information he supplied to police, according to the ruling.
His refugee claim was later declared abandoned.
In 2004, Toronto police charged Mr. Cichaczewski after an undercover officer spotted what he thought was a drug deal taking place on a street corner.
Instead, Toronto police say they found stolen credit cards and duplicate cards made from stolen personal information being sold. He was convicted of several misdeeds, including possession of stolen property, possession of the proceeds of crime and credit card and computer fraud offences. He received a suspended sentence and one year's probation on each.
Last year Mr. Cichaczewski married a Toronto woman who is Jewish, and he began the process of converting to Judaism.
In the meantime, the government moved to send Mr. Cichaczewski back to Brazil and he made two appeals for reconsideration. Both of his appeals were refused and he was scheduled for removal on Saturday.
Mr. Cichaczewski filed two more legal actions; one is a request for a judicial review of his removal and the other asking the court to allow him to remain in Canada pending the outcome of that review. It was that second request that Judge Harrington has ruled on.
"I have decided to grant the stay on religious grounds," Judge Harrington writes in his ruling.
"Everyone has the right to believe, or not to believe. Everyone has the right to be a member of an organized religion, subject to the tenets of that faith, or not. Everyone has the right to give public witness to faith. Everyone has the right to change religion," he writes in his ruling.
Mr. Cichaczewski has completed the classes necessary to convert to Judaism, which typically lasts a full year. Usually a conversion would then require circumcision, if a male applicant was not already circumcised, a ceremonial bathing and an appearance before a council of rabbis to be complete.
"His sincerity has not been put into question. It is important to emphasize that this is not an opportunistic conversion," Judge Harrington writes.
"The [immigration hearing] officer was of the view that nothing prevented Mr. Cichaczewski from converting to Judaism while back in Brazil. That may be so, but at the very least his conversion would be interrupted and delayed."
Canada Border Services Agency now await the outcome of Mr. Cichaczewski's remaining judicial appeal, which is based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
"We are obliged to abide by the court's decision," said Anna Pape, a CBSA spokeswoman.
Mr. Cichaczewski's lawyer, Barbara Jackman, could not be reached yesterday.
C’est plein de trous
Le Journal de Montréal (11.9.07)
Six ans après les attentats du 11 septembre, alors que les automobilistes attendent souvent des heures aux postes frontières, les véritables criminels pourraient facilement entrer au Canada sans se faire embêter par les douaniers, a constaté le Journal.
::encart:: Malgré les milliards dépensés par Ottawa pour renforcer la sécurité depuis les attentats de 2001, une équipe de reporters a pu entrer au Canada sans se rapporter au moindre douanier quatre fois en cinq tentatives.
Les journalistes se sont rendus aux États-Unis de façon tout à fait légale, et sont revenus au pays par des routes sans surveillance.
Au cours de notre reportage, nous avons commis des infractions administratives pour démontrer qu’il y avait un problème à la frontière. Notre principe était simple, si nous arrivions à traverser sans arrestation, nous aurions pu transporter n’importe quoi dans le coffre de notre voiture.
Cette enquête démontre donc qu’il y a des lacunes qui ont pour conséquence de favoriser le trafic d’armes, de drogues et de matériel de contrebande et de faciliter l’entrée de terroristes et d’immigrants illégaux.
Des failles
«Il faut refermer les trous. Il y en a des centaines à travers le Canada et les criminels utilisent ces failles à leur avantage», soutient le sénateur Colin Kenny, qui s’occupe des dossiers de sécurité nationale.
Le Canada compte 225 routes sans surveillance, dont 107 au Québec. Ces chemins relient la province et les États de l’est des États-Unis, mais il n’y a pas de poste douanier ou de matériel électronique du côté canadien pour contrôler les véhicules qui y circulent, à l’exception de capteurs qui alertent la GRC quand un véhicule, ou un gros animal, traverse la frontière.
La seule fois où notre équipe s’est fait coincer, elle a péché par inexpérience. Nous avons en effet passé la frontière durant les heures ouvrables en plein milieu de la semaine et nous avons filé tout droit en direction d’un poste de la GRC.
«Il faut vraiment être malchanceux pour se faire prendre. Il faut que des agents de la GRC soient tout près et, surtout, qu’ils soient disponibles. Et c’est rarement le cas», nous a indiqué une source du milieu frontalier. «La situation s’est détériorée. Il y a des interceptions, mais c’est sporadique. Il faut un coup de chance pour les attraper», confirme une deuxième source du milieu policier.
Immigrant unemployment most acute in Quebec
Globe and Mail
TAVIA GRANT
September 11, 2007
Newcomers are facing severe challenges finding work in Quebec, while they tend to gain employment much more easily in Manitoba and Alberta, a national study showed yesterday.
Immigrants throughout Canada struggle for work in the first decade after they arrive, especially in the first five years. But nowhere is the problem more acute than in Quebec, where they experience "substantially" higher unemployment rates than Canadian-born people - regardless of how long they've been in the country, Statistics Canada said.
Statscan used immigration figures gathered last year from its labour-force survey to analyze the immigrant labour market, focusing on people from the ages of 25 to 54. The resulting study paints a contrasting picture of how immigrants fare from province to province.
Most immigrants who've lived in Canada for a decade or longer find jobs at the same rate as Canadian-born people as they become more integrated.
In Quebec, however, even established immigrants - those who have lived in Canada for 10 years or more - can't seem to find work. Their unemployment rate in the province was 9.2 per cent last year, compared with 6.3 per cent for Quebec at large.
Linguistic challenges may be one reason.
"There may be a greater linguistic mismatch, the French language skills to Quebec versus the English language skills to the rest of Canada," said Morton Weinfeld, chairman of Canadian Ethnic Studies at McGill University in Montreal. He believes "there is still a large number [of immigrants] to Quebec that speak either English or neither language ... that fact alone could explain the weaker economic integration."
Other reasons may bethat many immigrants tend to attend school or stay home to take care of their families, the study suggested.
"Another factor that could explain higher unemployment rates among immigrants in Quebec could be related to the countries of birth of immigrants living in Quebec compared to other provinces," the study states, adding that the topic will be discussed in a future report.
On the flipside, the jobless rate for established immigrants in Atlantic Canada was just 4.1 per cent - less than half the region's 8.9-per-cent rate.
By last year, most of Canada's immigrants came from Asia, particularly India and China. About a fifth of Canada's population is born outside the country, one of the highest proportions in the world.
Immigrants will take on an even greater importance in the years ahead as Canada copes with an aging population and looming labour shortages. If current rates continue, immigration could account for virtually all net labour-force growth by 2011, the report states.
First-generation immigrants may have growing pains in integrating into the Canadian work force, but the problem eases with the second generation, Dr. Weinfeld pointed out.
"The real proof of the immigration and integration process is ultimately going to be with the children of immigrants, how they will be faring," he said. "Take a stroll through the campuses of Canada's major universities and research centres and institutes, particularly in the sciences and in commerce. See who's enrolled and who's graduating. Enough said."
Over all, newcomers are much more likely to have a university education than Canadian-born residents, Statscan reported. Thirty-six per cent of working-age immigrants had at least a bachelor's degree, while among those born in Canada, the proportion was just 22 per cent.
The report also shows stark gender differences.
"Labour market outcomes were better for immigrant men than their female counterparts, and ... young immigrant women in particular have struggled," the analysts wrote.
Regardless of how long they'd been in Canada, immigrant women had higher unemployment rates than both immigrant men and Canadian-born women.
The unemployment rate for women who've been here for five years or less was 13 per cent last year, higher than 10.3 per cent among men in the same group and 4.6 per cent among Canadian-born women.
Immigrants are more likely to work in factories, professional and technical services and accommodation and food services.
Immigrants who've been in Canada for less than 10 years, meanwhile, have tough times establishing themselves here. Very recent arrivals have a jobless rate of 11.5 per cent, more than double the Canadian average of 4.9 per cent.
The need to adjust to a new life in Canada, earn credential recognition and be retrained are some reasons for the gap. Immigrants themselves say the most serious difficulties in entering the work force are a lack of Canadian experience, lack of recognition of their credentials and language barriers, Statscan says, citing a 2003 study.
Immigrants tend to find work fastest in Alberta, where a strong economy has created labour shortages, and Manitoba, which has a program that matches skilled workers to employment before they land.
Integration is so successful in Manitoba that even recent immigrants had higher employment rates than Canadian-born people in other provinces.
Ontario is still the largest provincial destination for immigrants, with British Columbia in second spot.
Among cities, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are home to most immigrants. In terms of jobs, newcomers tend to fare better in Toronto and Vancouver than in Montreal.
Down and out in Quebec
Even after more than five years in Canada, immigrants living in La Belle Province have double the jobless rate of native-born Canadians.
Unemployment rates
SHARE OF IMMIGRANTS IN POPULATION AGED 25-54, 2006 BORN IN CANADA IMMIGRANTS LESS THAN 5 YEARS IMMIGRANTS 5-10 YEARS
Nfld., Labrador 8.9 N.B. (Atlantic) * *
PEI N.S. Sask. 3.7 * *
Que. 6.3 17.8 13.4
Man. 3.2 6.8 *
Alta. 2.6 5.8 4.7
B.C. 3.7 9.5 5.1
Ont. 4.4 11.0 7.0
Canada 4.9 11.5 7.3
*Data unreliable/unavailable
SOURCE: LABOUR FORCE SURVEY
For Stats Can release on the study: http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/070910/d070910a.htm
et en français:
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/Francais/070910/q070910a.htm
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070911.IMMIG11/TPStory/National
--
TAVIA GRANT
September 11, 2007
Newcomers are facing severe challenges finding work in Quebec, while they tend to gain employment much more easily in Manitoba and Alberta, a national study showed yesterday.
Immigrants throughout Canada struggle for work in the first decade after they arrive, especially in the first five years. But nowhere is the problem more acute than in Quebec, where they experience "substantially" higher unemployment rates than Canadian-born people - regardless of how long they've been in the country, Statistics Canada said.
Statscan used immigration figures gathered last year from its labour-force survey to analyze the immigrant labour market, focusing on people from the ages of 25 to 54. The resulting study paints a contrasting picture of how immigrants fare from province to province.
Most immigrants who've lived in Canada for a decade or longer find jobs at the same rate as Canadian-born people as they become more integrated.
In Quebec, however, even established immigrants - those who have lived in Canada for 10 years or more - can't seem to find work. Their unemployment rate in the province was 9.2 per cent last year, compared with 6.3 per cent for Quebec at large.
Linguistic challenges may be one reason.
"There may be a greater linguistic mismatch, the French language skills to Quebec versus the English language skills to the rest of Canada," said Morton Weinfeld, chairman of Canadian Ethnic Studies at McGill University in Montreal. He believes "there is still a large number [of immigrants] to Quebec that speak either English or neither language ... that fact alone could explain the weaker economic integration."
Other reasons may bethat many immigrants tend to attend school or stay home to take care of their families, the study suggested.
"Another factor that could explain higher unemployment rates among immigrants in Quebec could be related to the countries of birth of immigrants living in Quebec compared to other provinces," the study states, adding that the topic will be discussed in a future report.
On the flipside, the jobless rate for established immigrants in Atlantic Canada was just 4.1 per cent - less than half the region's 8.9-per-cent rate.
By last year, most of Canada's immigrants came from Asia, particularly India and China. About a fifth of Canada's population is born outside the country, one of the highest proportions in the world.
Immigrants will take on an even greater importance in the years ahead as Canada copes with an aging population and looming labour shortages. If current rates continue, immigration could account for virtually all net labour-force growth by 2011, the report states.
First-generation immigrants may have growing pains in integrating into the Canadian work force, but the problem eases with the second generation, Dr. Weinfeld pointed out.
"The real proof of the immigration and integration process is ultimately going to be with the children of immigrants, how they will be faring," he said. "Take a stroll through the campuses of Canada's major universities and research centres and institutes, particularly in the sciences and in commerce. See who's enrolled and who's graduating. Enough said."
Over all, newcomers are much more likely to have a university education than Canadian-born residents, Statscan reported. Thirty-six per cent of working-age immigrants had at least a bachelor's degree, while among those born in Canada, the proportion was just 22 per cent.
The report also shows stark gender differences.
"Labour market outcomes were better for immigrant men than their female counterparts, and ... young immigrant women in particular have struggled," the analysts wrote.
Regardless of how long they'd been in Canada, immigrant women had higher unemployment rates than both immigrant men and Canadian-born women.
The unemployment rate for women who've been here for five years or less was 13 per cent last year, higher than 10.3 per cent among men in the same group and 4.6 per cent among Canadian-born women.
Immigrants are more likely to work in factories, professional and technical services and accommodation and food services.
Immigrants who've been in Canada for less than 10 years, meanwhile, have tough times establishing themselves here. Very recent arrivals have a jobless rate of 11.5 per cent, more than double the Canadian average of 4.9 per cent.
The need to adjust to a new life in Canada, earn credential recognition and be retrained are some reasons for the gap. Immigrants themselves say the most serious difficulties in entering the work force are a lack of Canadian experience, lack of recognition of their credentials and language barriers, Statscan says, citing a 2003 study.
Immigrants tend to find work fastest in Alberta, where a strong economy has created labour shortages, and Manitoba, which has a program that matches skilled workers to employment before they land.
Integration is so successful in Manitoba that even recent immigrants had higher employment rates than Canadian-born people in other provinces.
Ontario is still the largest provincial destination for immigrants, with British Columbia in second spot.
Among cities, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are home to most immigrants. In terms of jobs, newcomers tend to fare better in Toronto and Vancouver than in Montreal.
Down and out in Quebec
Even after more than five years in Canada, immigrants living in La Belle Province have double the jobless rate of native-born Canadians.
Unemployment rates
SHARE OF IMMIGRANTS IN POPULATION AGED 25-54, 2006 BORN IN CANADA IMMIGRANTS LESS THAN 5 YEARS IMMIGRANTS 5-10 YEARS
Nfld., Labrador 8.9 N.B. (Atlantic) * *
PEI N.S. Sask. 3.7 * *
Que. 6.3 17.8 13.4
Man. 3.2 6.8 *
Alta. 2.6 5.8 4.7
B.C. 3.7 9.5 5.1
Ont. 4.4 11.0 7.0
Canada 4.9 11.5 7.3
*Data unreliable/unavailable
SOURCE: LABOUR FORCE SURVEY
For Stats Can release on the study: http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/070910/d070910a.htm
et en français:
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/Francais/070910/q070910a.htm
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070911.IMMIG11/TPStory/National
--
Forgive refugee loans, recommends immigration group
CBC
Last Updated: Monday, September 10, 2007 | 10:50 AM MT
CBC News
Refugees should not be required to pay back federal loans obtained to help them settle in Canada, the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society says.
Loans are granted to government-sponsored refugees to pay for plane tickets, finding a place to live and other initial expenses. The loans have an interest rate of 4.5 per cent, with repayment required to begin 30 days after arrival.
But paying the money back puts an enormous strain on someone who may not speak the language or have a job, says Fariborz Birjandian, who heads the Calgary immigration organization.
If the loans were forgiven or at least reduced by 75 per cent, the refugees could use the payment money, often about $100 a month, to buy food or clothing, Birjandian told CBC News.
A desperate family living in a refugee camp will agree to anything when presented with the opportunity to immigrate to Canada, he said.
Canada Immigration area director Robert Ferguson says the government has no plans to forgive the loans, of which 91 per cent are repaid.
If a person is having trouble making the payments, the monthly amount can be reduced or the loan can be deferred altogether for up to two years, Ferguson said.
"As a last resort, the department does consider using collection agencies in recovering the amount of the loan," Ferguson said.
Last Updated: Monday, September 10, 2007 | 10:50 AM MT
CBC News
Refugees should not be required to pay back federal loans obtained to help them settle in Canada, the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society says.
Loans are granted to government-sponsored refugees to pay for plane tickets, finding a place to live and other initial expenses. The loans have an interest rate of 4.5 per cent, with repayment required to begin 30 days after arrival.
But paying the money back puts an enormous strain on someone who may not speak the language or have a job, says Fariborz Birjandian, who heads the Calgary immigration organization.
If the loans were forgiven or at least reduced by 75 per cent, the refugees could use the payment money, often about $100 a month, to buy food or clothing, Birjandian told CBC News.
A desperate family living in a refugee camp will agree to anything when presented with the opportunity to immigrate to Canada, he said.
Canada Immigration area director Robert Ferguson says the government has no plans to forgive the loans, of which 91 per cent are repaid.
If a person is having trouble making the payments, the monthly amount can be reduced or the loan can be deferred altogether for up to two years, Ferguson said.
"As a last resort, the department does consider using collection agencies in recovering the amount of the loan," Ferguson said.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Gitmo North's Last Prisoner in Limbo After 6 Years
by Michelle Shephard
The Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/253291
September 5, 2007
BATH, Ont.– Hassan Almrei strolls from his cell wearing a pressed
cream shirt, dress pants and polished black shoes. If not for the
barbed wire behind him, the 33-year-old Syrian could be on his way
to a corporate board meeting, not an interview with a journalist
as the remaining detainee in a prison dubbed "Guantanamo North."
Almrei has fought a series of public and legal battles to get to
this point. Over the six years of his detention he has stopped
eating, sometimes for weeks at a time, to pressure the government
to grant him privileges like wearing a watch, or stopping the
daily strip searches.
"I don't think I should have to go through nine or 10 hunger
strikes while I'm in prison to know what time it is, to have shoes
on my feet," he said during an interview with the Toronto Star
inside the prison.
Last summer, he was able to make his first phone call to relatives
in Saudi Arabia. "I haven't been able to call them for years. I
had to go on a hunger strike just to call my mom and tell her,
`Look, I'm alive'. "
There are no other prisoners in the $3.2 million specially
designed prison on the grounds of Millhaven's maximum-security
penitentiary near Kingston – only Almrei, who was arrested one
month after the 9/11 attacks for alleged connections to Al Qaeda.
He has never been charged with a criminal offence. Four other
suspects were released on stringent conditions.
A bail decision is pending any day now for Almrei, who came to
Canada from Saudi Arabia in 1999 as a landed immigrant and ran an
unsuccessful pita restaurant in Yorkville before his arrest.
But he faces one obstacle in his release that the other suspects
didn't have. Almrei is not married, nor does he have any family in
Canada. That means despite support he has received from a number
of high-profile Canadians, and his willingness to wear a GPS
monitoring bracelet, he can't offer the security of a
24-hour-a-day supervisor.
When the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre opened last year,
Almrei's supporters called it Guantanamo North. But Almrei himself
is quick to note the differences between his confinement and the
imprisonment of 355 terrorism suspects at the U.S. base in
southeastern Cuba. "It's a million times different than Guantanamo
Bay, of course it is, and you know what, I'm lucky to be detained
in this country. I'm not denying that. (But) they're not talking
about the colour of the clothes, it's the principle. The principle
of Guantanamo Bay."
And like the legal quagmire that is Guantanamo, there is no
foreseeable end to Almrei's case.
Six months ago, the Supreme Court stuck down key provisions of the
immigration law that keeps him behind bars. National security
certificates had been used in rare cases to deport non-citizens
deemed a risk to Canada. But the court ruled the law was
unconstitutional because it allows the government to rely on
secret evidence from Canada's spy service, without giving
defendants a chance to refute the allegations. Parliament was
given a year to amend the law before it's declared invalid.
If Almrei's most recent attempt to get bail is denied, he'll
remain in prison until Parliament enacts a new law – and he could
again face deportation under the new system.
Hanging over the proceedings is the unresolved question as to
whether Canada will knowingly deport non-citizens to face torture
in their home countries. All five of the men – from Syria, Egypt,
Morocco and Algeria – say they will be tortured or killed if
returned, and in some instances the Canadian government has agreed
that's likely.
A 2002 Supreme Court decision ruled deportations could occur only
in "exceptional circumstances," but did not elaborate. That
question is expected to again go before the Supreme Court, which
means months, if not years more before the issue is decided.
"After six years in prison without being charged with any single
crime, I think the Canadian people, the Canadian public, should
come to the conclusion themselves ... that after all these years,
they cannot come (up) with one single ... real crime to show the
public this is dangerous to the public," Almrei said. "I think the
public should say enough is enough, that's it."
In a July bail hearing, a spy with the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service said the government believes Almrei supports
Al Qaeda's ideology and there is classified evidence that proves
it. "The Service's position is we are not willing to take a chance
with this person being out unsupervised and free to resume his
activities, given that we have no evidence that he has shed his
prior beliefs," the agent testified.
While disillusioned by the federal government, Almrei said he has
only grown to love his adopted country more during his incarceration.
"Even though I'm in jail now, people may think I have some anger,
or sorry I came to this country, (but) even if I knew before I
came this is what would happen to me, I still would have come to
this country. Why? After all these years behind bars I came to
know many, many Canadian people, which I really have respect and
admiration for them. I feel it's worth it."
Almrei checks his new watch. The 90 minutes are done. He saunters
back to his cell for another day behind bars.
Immigrants welcome - as long as they conform
Most Quebecers against open expression of non-Christian religion
Support for a "code of conduct" for minorities is one of the paradoxes found in our poll about issues related to reasonable accommodation. Part 3 in a five-day series, Identities.
Quebecers think of themselves as tolerant, open-minded people. They think immigration is a good thing and that minorities have a strong role to play in society.
But beneath the surface, many fear the changes that immigrants and other minorities bring - especially non-Christian ones, according to a wide-ranging poll commissioned by The Gazette of attitudes over the reasonable accommodation debate.
There's also a paradox: Some of the very same Quebecers who say we are strengthened by cultural and religious diversity also say immigrants should be more like the majority.
Seven out of 10 Quebecers say Quebec society has been enriched by diversity, that immigrants should have as much say in the future of Quebec as anyone, and that minorities should be given a chance to take part in public decisions, the Lger Marketing poll of 1,001 Quebecers found in late August.
The flip side of the picture was less encouraging.
One in three people polled said Quebec society is under threat by the arrival of non-Christian immigrants, two out of five said Quebec society is changing too fast because of the minorities living here, and more than half said immigrants should abandon their customs and traditions and be more like the majority, the poll found.
An even higher proportion - 58 per cent - said Quebec should adopt a "code of conduct" for minorities to follow when it comes to practising their religion and culture - the kind of code the village of Hrouxville did last year that stirred up a storm of controversy.
The poll reveals a passive double standard: a large majority of Quebecers disapproves of open expressions of religion, unless it's Christian.
"There's a large reservoir of guilt among French Canadians about the rapid rejection of Catholicism during the Quiet Revolution - that's a fact," said
sociologist Morton Weinfeld, who runs McGill University's Canadian ethnic studies program.
"And an easy way to assuage that guilt is by symbols - it's what I call religion-lite," Weinfeld said.
"People say, 'We don't have to go to church, we don't have to follow the dictates of the church, but we're very comfortable with all the visual imagery around us that reminds us of our heritage and reinforces our identity.'"
On specific issues, the poll found that Quebecers on the whole are against non-Christian accommodations:
They don't think Jews or Muslims should get time off work to pray (72 per cent are against).
They don't think religious minorities should get special meals at a traditional cabane sucre (69 per cent).
They don't want the government to subsidize religious schools (67 per cent).
They don't want Muslim women to walk around with their faces covered (63 per cent).
They don't want Muslim teachers to cover their hair with a
hijab (61 per cent);
They don't want Muslim girls to wear the hijab in school (61 per cent).
And they don't want prayer rooms in colleges and universities (59 per cent).
About the only thing they are willing to concede is hijabs in public. Two in three - 66 per cent - think it's OK for Muslim women to dress like that.
But when it comes to the most common expression of the Catholic religion - the crucifix that's displayed seemingly everywhere in Quebec, in schools, in nursing homes, in the National Assembly, Quebecers are happy it's there. About six out of 10 - 59 per cent - approve of keeping crucifixes on the walls of public schools.
"Quebecers widely agree that diversity enriches Quebec society but they're much less at ease when this diversity is expressed through religious symbols coming from outside Catholicism," said Lger research vice-president Christian Bourque, who oversaw the survey.
Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies, analyzed the Lger data for The Gazette. Co-relating people's answers to the poll question, Jedwab found that even those who say they're most open to religious and cultural diversity draw the line at public displays like hijabs, while approving of crucifixes in school.
For example, of the people who totally agree that diversity enriches society, only 22 per cent completely accept Muslim girls wearing hijabs in school. And of those who have no problem with crucifixes in schools, only 25 per cent would allow hijabs to be worn there, either by students or teachers.
The most worrisome part of the poll is that a majority of Quebecers appear to favour some kind of "code of conduct" for minorities, Weinfeld said.
"It's troubling, because there's an action component to it - people want the government to regulate the problem. That attitude reflects a certain kind of tatisme in Quebec, which may include telling minorities how to live. It's objectionable, it's unconstitutional and it violates the Charter (of Rights and Freedoms)."
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=fee092fd-5859-48c7-a46e-0a0a43700b73&k=38180&p=1
Friday, September 7, 2007
Un producteur expulse un prêtre
La Presse
Les propriétaires de la ferme FraiseBec ont appelé la police, mardi soir, pour expulser un prêtre qui était venu visiter les 138 travailleuses guatémaltèques et mexicaines de cette entreprise du nord de Montréal, considérée comme le plus important producteur de fraises au Canada.
«Les travailleurs migrants souffrent d’isolement dans bien des fermes, mais cela semble particulièrement évident chez FraiseBec», dit le père Clément Bolduc, qui visite les travailleurs agricoles migrants de la région de Montréal.
Photo Ivanoh Demers, La Presse
Vers 20h, après leur retour des champs, le père Clément Bolduc, des Missions étrangères, s'est rendu avec sa voiture jusqu'à leurs logements, installés dans une série de bâtiments dissimulés derrière un ruisseau et une rangée d'arbres, à environ 500 mètres de la route, à Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines.
Des travailleuses sont venues à sa rencontre et se sont mises à parler avec lui et les deux personnes qui l'accompagnaient, dont un journaliste de La Presse. Nous leur avons demandé si elles pouvaient quitter la ferme à leur guise: elles ont répondu que cela leur était strictement interdit, à moins d'avoir une autorisation de leurs patrons. Qu'arriverait-il si elles ignoraient cette consigne? «Oh là lè, c'est impossible, a répondu l'une d'elles. On serait congédiées et renvoyées dans notre pays.»
Les femmes ont invité le père Bolduc à les suivre dans un des bâtiments, qui abrite les cuisines. Une quarantaine de travailleuses, manifestement curieuses et peu habituées à recevoir de la visite, ont afflué vers la salle commune. Le prêtre, qui parle couramment l'espagnol, s'est présenté à elles et a expliqué qu'il visitait les travailleurs agricoles latino-américains depuis une dizaine d'années dans la région de Montréal.
Deux ou trois minutes plus tard, une des propriétaires, Isabelle Charbonneau, a surgi dans la pièce. Furieuse, elle a exigé le départ immédiat du missionnaire, du journaliste et du troisième visiteur, Roberto Nieto, ami du père Bolduc qui est déjà allé au Guatemala pour rencontrer des employées de FraiseBec.
«Vous êtes sur une propriété privée! a crié Mme Charbonneau. Vous devez avoir notre autorisation pour venir ici. Partez immédiatement!» Le père Bolduc a répondu que les travailleuses étaient chez elles et que c'était à elles de décider si elles voulaient que les visiteurs s'en aillent. Or, rien ne montrait que c'était le cas.
Mme Charbonneau est partie et a laissé un contremaître sur place. MM. Bolduc et Nieto ont interrogé les femmes sur leurs conditions de travail, s'enquérant entre autres de leur santé. D'abord nerveuses, elles se sont détendues petit à petit, puis elles se sont mises à chanter en choeur avec le prêtre: «Alabaré, alabaré, alabaré a mi Señor!» (Je louerai le Seigneur!)
Pendant qu'elles chantaient, deux policiers de Terrebonne, suivis de Mme Charbonneau, sont apparus dans la porte et ont demandé aux visiteurs de quitter les lieux. Au cours d'un entretien, hier, Mme Charbonneau a répété que les visiteurs devaient avoir l'autorisation des propriétaires pour aller rencontrer les travailleuses, et cela afin d'assurer leur sécurité. De son côté, le père Bolduc a rappelé qu'il avait tenté de voir ces femmes, en 2002, mais qu'il avait été chassé, même après avoir obtenu une autorisation auprès d'un membre de la famille des propriétaires.
«Je m'étais présenté avec deux religieuses, a-t-il raconté. Mme Charbonneau était arrivée au bout d'une quinzaine de minutes et nous avait expulsés. Deux mois plus tard, je suis retourné chez FraiseBec avec un séminariste: nous avons tenté d'avoir une autorisation de visite, mais on nous l'a refusée. De toute façon, depuis quand faut-il l'autorisation du propriétaire pour visiter des locataires?»
En vertu du Code civil, toute personne qui occupe un logement ne lui appartenant pas est considérée comme un locataire: qu'il soit signé ou non, «le bail est présumé lorsqu'une personne occupe les lieux avec la tolérance du propriétaire». Le Code stipule que le propriétaire doit «procurer la jouissance paisible» du logement à son locataire, ce qui, selon la Charte des droits, comprend le respect de sa vie privée.
Les avocats consultés par La Presse, y compris à la Régie du logement, ont souligné qu'un propriétaire n'a rien à dire sur les visites faites à ses locataires, peu importe qu'il soit leur employeur. Les travailleuses guatémaltèques, qui sont majoritaires, payent un loyer chez FraiseBec. Les Mexicaines n'en paient pas, mais cela ne change rien à leur statut de locataire.
«Presque tous les travailleurs migrants souffrent d'isolement dans les fermes du Québec, mais cela semble particulièrement évident chez FraiseBec, a dit le père Bolduc, hier. La situation de ces femmes m'apparaît totalement anormale.»
Mme Charbonneau a nié que les travailleuses ne pouvaient quitter la ferme sans l'autorisation des propriétaires. Mais elle a reconnu que ceux-ci contrôlaient toutes les visites. «Ce sont des femmes, nous sommes responsables de leur sécurité et nous devons les protéger», a-t-elle dit. Hier, elle a assuré au père Bolduc qu'ils lui donneraient l'autorisation d'aller visiter les travailleuses, s'il la demandait. «Soyons optimistes, a dit le prêtre: c'est une ouverture.»
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070830/CPACTUALITES/708300382/5358/CPPRESSE
Syria severely restricts Iraqi refugee influx
Globe and Mail
KHALED YACOUB OWEIS
Reuters
September 3, 2007 at 9:30 AM EDT
DAMASCUS — Syria has imposed strict visa requirements on Iraqi nationals, officials said on Monday, cutting the only accessible escape route for thousands of refugees fleeing the upheaval in Iraq.
A government decree that takes effect on Sept. 10 bars Iraqi passport holders from entering Syria except for businessmen and academics, a small minority of the 3,000-5,000 refugees who currently cross the border every day.
Jordan, the other main goal of Iraqi refugees, imposed its own visa requirements some two years ago.
"Syria has already received more than 1.5 million refugees and there could be no end in sight to what the Americans unleashed there. We simply can't cope any more," a Syrian official told Reuters.
The official gave no indication that Syria could force refugees already in the country to leave.
At Rawda cafe in the Syrian capital, a meeting point for refugees, Iraqis expressed frustration at the new regulations.
"All the roads in front of us are now blocked. Arab governments are making the lives of Iraqis even more miserable," said Fadel Ahmad, who came from Baghdad.
"Escaping to Syria has kept me and my family alive. What are people facing death and eviction from there homes in Iraq supposed to do now?" asked Wafa Mahdi, a former school teacher.
Diplomats said Syrian officials informed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of their intension to stop the influx during a visit by Mr. Maliki to Damascus last month.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry said on its website that Syria has asked for Iraqi co-operation to implement the new visa system.
Iraqis could previously turn up at any Syrian border point and be automatically issued a three-month visa. Under the new decree visas can be issued only to businessmen and academics by Syrian embassies abroad.
"Iraqi nationals seeking a Syrian visa must show proof of residency in the country they are applying from," the decree said.
Syria began receiving Iraqi refugees in large numbers after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that removed President Saddam Hussein from power and brought sectarian tensions to the surface. Syrian officials blame the influx for straining their infrastructure and public services.
Iraqi demand for housing in Syria has contributed to a property market boom and sharply higher consumer spending. Artists and intellectuals among the refugees are main players on the Syrian cultural scene.
A recent International Monetary Fund report said the influx of Iraqis had given the Syrian economy a boost.
The report said the refugees, who are not allowed to hold jobs legally, are believed to be living mainly off their savings. They constitute an estimated 8-10 per cent of Syria's population.
KHALED YACOUB OWEIS
Reuters
September 3, 2007 at 9:30 AM EDT
DAMASCUS — Syria has imposed strict visa requirements on Iraqi nationals, officials said on Monday, cutting the only accessible escape route for thousands of refugees fleeing the upheaval in Iraq.
A government decree that takes effect on Sept. 10 bars Iraqi passport holders from entering Syria except for businessmen and academics, a small minority of the 3,000-5,000 refugees who currently cross the border every day.
Jordan, the other main goal of Iraqi refugees, imposed its own visa requirements some two years ago.
"Syria has already received more than 1.5 million refugees and there could be no end in sight to what the Americans unleashed there. We simply can't cope any more," a Syrian official told Reuters.
The official gave no indication that Syria could force refugees already in the country to leave.
At Rawda cafe in the Syrian capital, a meeting point for refugees, Iraqis expressed frustration at the new regulations.
"All the roads in front of us are now blocked. Arab governments are making the lives of Iraqis even more miserable," said Fadel Ahmad, who came from Baghdad.
"Escaping to Syria has kept me and my family alive. What are people facing death and eviction from there homes in Iraq supposed to do now?" asked Wafa Mahdi, a former school teacher.
Diplomats said Syrian officials informed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of their intension to stop the influx during a visit by Mr. Maliki to Damascus last month.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry said on its website that Syria has asked for Iraqi co-operation to implement the new visa system.
Iraqis could previously turn up at any Syrian border point and be automatically issued a three-month visa. Under the new decree visas can be issued only to businessmen and academics by Syrian embassies abroad.
"Iraqi nationals seeking a Syrian visa must show proof of residency in the country they are applying from," the decree said.
Syria began receiving Iraqi refugees in large numbers after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that removed President Saddam Hussein from power and brought sectarian tensions to the surface. Syrian officials blame the influx for straining their infrastructure and public services.
Iraqi demand for housing in Syria has contributed to a property market boom and sharply higher consumer spending. Artists and intellectuals among the refugees are main players on the Syrian cultural scene.
A recent International Monetary Fund report said the influx of Iraqis had given the Syrian economy a boost.
The report said the refugees, who are not allowed to hold jobs legally, are believed to be living mainly off their savings. They constitute an estimated 8-10 per cent of Syria's population.
Security Certificates and Detention: the government responds
In mid-July, the government issued its response to the Parliamentary Committee on Public Safety’s sub-committee report on the Anti-Terrorism Act and security certificates. It affirms the government’s intention of continuing to use security certificates. Although the Supreme Court’s central finding in the Charkaoui case was that the security process violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the report suggests that the Court simply ruled that “the Government could do more to protect the rights of the individual”. The report also states that the government is continuing to review the idea of a ‘special advocate’ procedure and will table legislation on this issue in the near future.
In late August, the government also issued its response to the Parliamentary Committee on Citizenship and Immigration’s report on detention conditions for security certificate detainees. The response rejects most of the recommendations, including significant ones such as using criminal prosecutions rather than immigration procedures, having the Correctional Investigator oversee the Kingston facility, and having a complaints mechanism for Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The government reported some changes in line with recommendations such as: improved telephone access, better canteen facilities, and suspending the head count. The only recommendation it welcomed is the call for adequate resources for police and intelligence services.
The government response to the report on the Anti-Terrorism Act and security certificates response is available at: http://tinyurl.com/2ylkq8
The government response to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration’s report on security certificate detention is available at: http://tinyurl.com/2bctk4
The CCR has published a position in follow up to the Charkaoui decision, available at http://www.ccrweb.ca/documents/Certificates07.pdf
For media coverage of the report on the Anti-Terrorism Act and security certificates, see:
‘Tories launch bid to restore anti-terror powers’, The Globe and Mail, 19 July 2007. Available online at: http://tinyurl.com/2sfs8t
For media coverage of the report on security certificate detention, see:
‘Sex, cooking not allowed for detained terrorism suspects’, The Globe and Mail, 28 August 2007. Available online at: http://tinyurl.com/28tcfc
-Canadian Council for Refugees E-Chronicle Vol. 2 #5, 4 September 2007
In late August, the government also issued its response to the Parliamentary Committee on Citizenship and Immigration’s report on detention conditions for security certificate detainees. The response rejects most of the recommendations, including significant ones such as using criminal prosecutions rather than immigration procedures, having the Correctional Investigator oversee the Kingston facility, and having a complaints mechanism for Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The government reported some changes in line with recommendations such as: improved telephone access, better canteen facilities, and suspending the head count. The only recommendation it welcomed is the call for adequate resources for police and intelligence services.
The government response to the report on the Anti-Terrorism Act and security certificates response is available at: http://tinyurl.com/2ylkq8
The government response to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration’s report on security certificate detention is available at: http://tinyurl.com/2bctk4
The CCR has published a position in follow up to the Charkaoui decision, available at http://www.ccrweb.ca/documents/Certificates07.pdf
For media coverage of the report on the Anti-Terrorism Act and security certificates, see:
‘Tories launch bid to restore anti-terror powers’, The Globe and Mail, 19 July 2007. Available online at: http://tinyurl.com/2sfs8t
For media coverage of the report on security certificate detention, see:
‘Sex, cooking not allowed for detained terrorism suspects’, The Globe and Mail, 28 August 2007. Available online at: http://tinyurl.com/28tcfc
-Canadian Council for Refugees E-Chronicle Vol. 2 #5, 4 September 2007
Les certificats de sécurité et la détention : le gouvernement répond
À la mi-juillet, le gouvernement a publié sa réponse au rapport sur la Loi antiterroriste et les certificats de sécurité du sous-comité du Comité parlementaire sur la sécurité publique. Le gouvernement affirme son intention de continuer à utiliser les certificats de sécurité. Alors que la conclusion principale de la Cour suprême dans le cas Charkaoui était que le processus de sécurité viole la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés, le rapport mentionne que la Cour a simplement suggéré que « le gouvernement peut faire davantage pour protéger les droits de l’individu ». Le rapport mentionne également que le gouvernement continue de revoir la proposition d’une procédure de « recours à des avocats indépendants » et déposera un projet de loi sur cette question dans un avenir rapproché.
À la fin août, le gouvernement a également publié sa réponse au rapport du Comité permanent de la citoyenneté et l’immigration sur les conditions de détention des détenus en vertu d’un certificat de sécurité. La réponse rejette la plupart des recommandations, dont des recommandations importantes telles que l’utilisation de poursuites criminelles plutôt que de procédures d’immigration, la surveillance du centre de détention de Kingston par l’enquêteur correctionnel et la mise en place d’un mécanisme de plainte pour l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada. Le gouvernement a annoncé quelques changements en lien avec les recommandations tels que : un meilleur accès au téléphone, de meilleurs services de cantine, et la suspension du dénombrement quotidien. La seule recommandation que le gouvernement a accueilli avec enthousiasme est la demande de ressources adéquates pour les services de police et de renseignements.
La réponse du gouvernement au rapport sur la Loi antiterroriste et les certificats de sécurité est disponible à : http://tinyurl.com/yquajo
La réponse du gouvernement au rapport du Comité permanent de la citoyenneté et de l’immigration sur les centres de détention et les certificats de sécurité est disponible à :
http://tinyurl.com/354hnq
Le CCR a publié une position suite à la décision Charkaoui, disponible à
http://www.ccrweb.ca/documents/Certificats07.pdf
La couverture médiatique en anglais du rapport sur la loi antiterroriste et les certificats de sécurité est disponible à :
‘Tories launch bid to restore anti-terror powers’, The Globe and Mail, 19 juillet 2007. http://tinyurl.com/2sfs8t
La couverture médiatique en anglais du rapport sur les centres de détention et les certificats de sécurité est disponible à:
‘Sex, cooking not allowed for detained terrorism suspects’, The Globe and Mail, 28 août 2007. http://tinyurl.com/28tcfc
- Chronique du Conseil canadien pour les réfugiés Vol. 2 #5, 4 septembre 2007
À la fin août, le gouvernement a également publié sa réponse au rapport du Comité permanent de la citoyenneté et l’immigration sur les conditions de détention des détenus en vertu d’un certificat de sécurité. La réponse rejette la plupart des recommandations, dont des recommandations importantes telles que l’utilisation de poursuites criminelles plutôt que de procédures d’immigration, la surveillance du centre de détention de Kingston par l’enquêteur correctionnel et la mise en place d’un mécanisme de plainte pour l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada. Le gouvernement a annoncé quelques changements en lien avec les recommandations tels que : un meilleur accès au téléphone, de meilleurs services de cantine, et la suspension du dénombrement quotidien. La seule recommandation que le gouvernement a accueilli avec enthousiasme est la demande de ressources adéquates pour les services de police et de renseignements.
La réponse du gouvernement au rapport sur la Loi antiterroriste et les certificats de sécurité est disponible à : http://tinyurl.com/yquajo
La réponse du gouvernement au rapport du Comité permanent de la citoyenneté et de l’immigration sur les centres de détention et les certificats de sécurité est disponible à :
http://tinyurl.com/354hnq
Le CCR a publié une position suite à la décision Charkaoui, disponible à
http://www.ccrweb.ca/documents/Certificats07.pdf
La couverture médiatique en anglais du rapport sur la loi antiterroriste et les certificats de sécurité est disponible à :
‘Tories launch bid to restore anti-terror powers’, The Globe and Mail, 19 juillet 2007. http://tinyurl.com/2sfs8t
La couverture médiatique en anglais du rapport sur les centres de détention et les certificats de sécurité est disponible à:
‘Sex, cooking not allowed for detained terrorism suspects’, The Globe and Mail, 28 août 2007. http://tinyurl.com/28tcfc
- Chronique du Conseil canadien pour les réfugiés Vol. 2 #5, 4 septembre 2007
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