Banerjee and KC: Are algorithms unfairly screening out immigrant job applications?

2026/06/26 Leave a comment

Good discussion of the issues and evidence with sensible conclusion:

…None of this means that AI is inherently discriminatory, nor does it mean employers should abandon digital hiring technologies. Used responsibly, these tools can improve efficiency and help employers identify qualified candidates.

But Canada has spent decades refining how it selects skilled immigrants. Less attention is being paid to the technologies increasingly shaping whether those skills are recognized after arrival.

As AI becomes embedded in recruitment, we need to consider how opportunity is governed once immigrants enter the labour market. If immigration policy selects skilled immigrants, AI is increasingly shaping whether they are seen as skilled workers.

Canada’s future depends on both immigration and artificial intelligence. Ensuring that these two ambitions reinforce rather than undermine one another may become one of the defining policy challenges of the AI era.

Source: Are algorithms unfairly screening out immigrant job applications?

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Conservative MPs launch fundraiser for LGBTQ+ refugees

2026/06/26 Leave a comment

A reminder of the Conservative Party’s inclusiveness and that overall concerns regarding large numbers of refugees and government management of immigration also have a softer side. Happened during my time when representation by Egale and others resulted in revision of Discover Canada to be more inclusive of LGBTQ:

Two Conservative MPs say leading a fundraising cruise for LGBTQ+ refugees is a tangible way for the party to advance the rights of gender and sexual minorities.

“We’re all God’s creatures and we’re all loved, and we all deserve to be loved and we all deserve to feel safe and secure,” Scott Aitchison told The Canadian Press.

“I believe that it’s important for all of us to — not to preach that, but to demonstrate that.”

Aitchison is MP for Parry Sound—Muskoka, a riding popular with Torontonians who own cottages.

Last Friday, he announced a July 15 fundraising boat cruise for Rainbow Railroad, an organization that helps resettle persecuted LGBTQ+ people from around the world in Canada and other countries.

In a social media video, he and Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman, who is lesbian, urged members of the public to buy $150 tickets.

The video drew a mix of praise, grumblings about the affordability crisis and criticism of the party’s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community.

Source: Conservative MPs launch fundraiser for LGBTQ+ refugees

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Clerk Report to PM: Less Emphasis of Employment Equity

2026/06/26 Leave a comment

Quite a shift from the previous Clerk and government. The annex A extensive data on public service representation and diversity have been replaced by Public Service Employee Survey Responses centred around the Clerk’s priorities of focus, simplify, accountability and Inclusion and values-based culture.

Given a shrinking public service and concerns among advocates that this may affect representation (no sign of it yet), an odd decision rather than just adding an annex.

While the report makes the standard references to inclusion, the “How we work” Annex B limits inclusion to regional aspects: “A values-based, inclusive public service where all public servants from all regions feel valued, supported and empowered to contribute.”

Was it a conscious decision not to include “all backgrounds” or an oversight? Hard to know but it does suggest an overall decreased interest in employment equity at a time when the public service is shrinking. We will see if TBS continues its detailed annual reporting or simplifies.

32nd Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada

33rd Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada



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Gail Asper, who helped create the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, raises concerns about its upcoming Nakba exhibit along with Cotler, with balance provided by Lederman

2026/06/25 Leave a comment

Struck a nerve:

When the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg opens a show about Palestinian displacement this weekend, one of its founders may be standing outside protesting.

Philanthropist Gail Asper, who led the museum project after the 2003 death of her father, media owner Izzy Asper, fears that the exhibition about the exile of Palestinians from what is now Israel lacks historical context and might inflame antisemitism in Canada.

“I definitely would protest. I am not going to attend the opening,” she said, although she added she does plan to see the show. It opens to the general public Saturday, after a launch on Friday. “I’m never the sort of person that wants a book banned before I’ve read it, so I will go and I will take a look.”

The show, entitled Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present, is devoted to the Palestinian experience of exile after 1947 and uses photographs, videos and objects to relay first-person accounts. It has become controversial in the Jewish community because it does not cover the history surrounding the establishment of Israel, nor the displacement of Jews from Arab lands after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948….

Source: Gail Asper, who helped create the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, raises concerns about its upcoming Nakba exhibit

The Canadian Museum of Human Rights has failed its mandate

…In truth, 1948 produced a double catastrophe: Arab Palestinian displacement resulting from war, and the mass displacement of Jews from Arab lands. Any institution claiming scholarly seriousness must grapple with both.

Instead, the museum privileges one historical memory while marginalizing another.

That is not education. It is curation by omission.

Museums are not activist or propagandistic platforms. They are custodians of public trust. Their role is not to inflame but to illuminate; not to advance ideological narratives but to encourage inquiry, historical nuance and civic understanding.

When museums abandon scholarly neutrality for activism, they become instruments of polarization.

That risk is especially acute today, amid an unprecedented explosion of antisemitism, deep communal fracture and public anxiety.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights should be helping bridge divides, not deepen them.

A museum devoted to human rights need not avoid difficult subjects. But it must present them with evidence-based inquiry, context, intellectual honesty and moral seriousness.

In this case, it has failed that test.

If the museum wishes to contribute meaningfully to public understanding, it must revisit this exhibition’s framing and ensure it reflects historical truth rather than a selective political narrative.

Canadians deserve better from one of their most important public institutions.

Irwin Cotler was Canada’s minister of justice and first special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and antisemitism,Mark L. Berlin is Professor of Practice at McGill University and former senior adviser on the Middle East to the minister of justice, Alan H. Kessel is a former assistant deputy minister and legal adviser at Global Affairs Canada.

Lederman: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is right to portray the stories of displaced Palestinians

…Ms. Khan says she is concerned about antisemitism, as the head of a human rights museum should be – as every Canadian should be. She is also concerned that Palestinian experiences were under-represented in the museum. As she should be.

Rational people should be able to distinguish between a foreign dignitary’s museum visit and actual foreign interference. Reasonable people should understand that a human rights museum has every reason to profile the stories of displaced Palestinians. Reasonable people should also understand that the museum has a responsibility to present such stories with integrity. The Canadian public is counting on this national museum, this Crown corporation, to tell these stories. And to tell them fairly and responsibly.







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Tristin Hopper: Poilievre says there are too many ‘heritage months’ in Canada. There are 17

2026/06/25 Leave a comment

He has a point. But virtually impossible to remove any from the list, or any weeks or days, as each has a constituency. The most a government could do would be not to add anymore:

At a B.C. town hall last week, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said there are too many federally recognized heritage months, and that it’s “kind of getting hard to keep track of which month is for what cause or for what group.”

The spur for the question appears to have been a Liberal MP’s recent attempt to have July declared as Somali Heritage Month.

In reply, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani sponsored a petition for Canada to never declare another heritage month ever again.

“End the tokenism practice of recognizing a day or month in commemoration of any ethnic or heritage group; and celebrate Canadians for the sake of being Canadian not based on ethnicity or ancestry,” reads the text.

According to the Department of Canadian Heritage, there are 17 “heritage months” that are officially observed by the Government of Canada.

This is obviously more than there are months in the calendar, meaning that some months are concurrently recognized as multiple heritage months at the same time.

The busiest single month for this happens to be the current month. Right now, Canada is officially recognizing National Indigenous History Month, Italian Heritage Month, Filipino Heritage Month and Portuguese Heritage Month….

Altogether, there are now just 20 days, all of them in December, in which the Government of Canada isn’t officially commemorating something.

Source: Tristin Hopper: Poilievre says there are too many ‘heritage months’ in Canada. There are 17

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Critics see Canada’s immigration minister as weak and invisible a year into her mandate. But is she doing exactly what Mark Carney wants?

2026/06/24 Leave a comment

Interesting take:

If Prime Minister Mark Carney wanted a low-key minister to handle the Liberals’ immigration mess and stay out of the headlines, he may have found the right person in Lena Metlege Diab.

Whether or not by design, Immigration Minister Diab, unlike her predecessors, has maintained a low profile. That’s despite relentless attacks by the opposition Conservatives over her invisibility and competence in the high-stakes portfolio.

The MP from Nova Scotia has been lambasted by critics for relying on bureaucrats to answer questions at committee, and being unclear in communicating policies and less responsive than her predecessors.

In the year and a bit since she was tapped by Carney to lead the file, Diab seems to have delivered what the prime minister has asked her to do in returning overall immigration to more “sustainable levels” — at least in terms of slashing the immigrant population.

A Parliamentary Budget Officer report this year projected the share of non-permanent residents will fall under five per cent of Canada’s population by the end of 2027, aligning with the government target.

But the system the Nova Scotia MP inherited is still in flux, rife with uncertainty, backlogs and long processing times — issues that experts say need to be urgently addressed to restore stability and faith in Canadian immigration.

Diab ‘turns down political heat’

“Her mandate certainly was to turn down the political heat on immigration, and I would say that she’s done that successfully,” said Victoria-based immigration lawyer Kyle Hyndman. 

“A lot of the immigration conversation has got really focused on numbers. We’re not talking about bushels of soya beans here. We’re talking about people who are very different in terms of what they bring to Canada and in terms of what they need. This conversation about reaching a sustainable level of immigration is only half of the question.”

And the falling numbers of temporary residents are what Diab has wanted to register with Canadians….

University of Toronto political science professor Phil Triadafilopoulos said Canada’s immigration system is still in transition, rolling back a messy expansion under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, especially after the pandemic. And the repair can only be done in “a piecemeal way,” he added.

He said the issues of temporary residents have built up ever since Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s time, and exploded in 2022 and ‘23 as politicians caved to the demands of colleges and universities to recruit foreign students to offset government funding cuts, as well as the push by businesses seeking easy access to foreign labour.

“The expectation is that most people will leave, but we know from experience that a large number of people will not leave and will overstay and live in a more precarious way,” said Triadafilopoulos.

To Carney, he added, Diab seemed to be the right person to keep immigration issues out of the news cycle because the PM needed someone to do things quietly and not want to be in the news all the time, to “decompress immigration.” His sense is that the Prime Minister’s Office is now steering the boat and trying to return the Immigration Department to an operation led by civil servants…

Source: Critics see Canada’s immigration minister as weak and invisible a year into her mandate. But is she doing exactly what Mark Carney wants?

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Moffatt: A wave of young digital nomads is leaving Canada for cheaper, warmer countries

2026/06/24 Leave a comment

Need better data. But if they file Canadian taxes and thus technically remaining Canadian citizens, does it matter that much compared to those who leave and don’t file Canadian taxes?

…These visas have caused a form of shadow emigration, where talented young Canadians have left the country, but they are not counted in our statistics, forcing policymakers to rely on anecdotes to determine the extent of the issue and how it is growing over time. 

The Canadians who live in work in those countries typically file Canadian tax returns each year, they continue to have Canadian bank accounts and Canadian passports, so in the eyes of data collectors, they still are domestic residents in Canada, even if they have been living elsewhere for years.

Their absence, however, is a loss for Canada. A 2024 study from the Bank of Canada found that two-thirds of Canada’s labour productivity gap with the U.S. stems from differences in the productivity levels of high-income workers in the two countries, and that the emigration of the high-talent workers from Canada to the U.S. is likely a contributing factor….

Source: A wave of young digital nomads is leaving Canada for cheaper, warmer countries

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Human rights museum board member resigns over ‘one-sided’ exhibit on displaced Palestinians

2026/06/24 2 Comments

Of note. One sided is, of course, partially in the mind of the beholder but this is a hard issue to navigate but one that merits attention:

A trustee for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights says he has resigned from the Winnipeg facility’s board over an upcoming exhibit about displaced Palestinians.

Mark Berlin submitted his resignation in a letter to federal Heritage Minister Marc Miller and the museum’s board chair. In it, Berlin accuses the museum of putting forth “ideology” instead of an accurate history.

“Telling the story with a one-sided perspective chosen by the museum serves to deepen division and contributes to further hostility toward Jews in Canada,” Berlin wrote in his letter, shared with media outlets.

“Presenting the Palestinian displacement of 1948 without its proper historical and political context offers a narrow, one-sided argument of history that can only deepen the distrust and animosity that currently exists between Jews and Muslims in this country.”

Berlin, a professor at McGill University’s international development institute with a background in human rights law, argued the exhibit fails to explain that Arab states fought those who ultimately established the State of Israel in 1948 and then expelled Jews to Israel.

The exhibit, set to open Saturday, focuses on people affected by the forced displacement of about 750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Palestine war — an event known as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe.

Source: Human rights museum board member resigns over ‘one-sided’ exhibit on displaced Palestinians

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Ottawa reverses orders to surrender some ‘lost Canadian’ citizenship certificates

2026/06/24 Leave a comment

Sigh…. Suspect that the lack of discussion at CIMM and SOCI over third and earlier generation impact may reflect a lack of policy analysis over this potential:

Just one week after some “lost Canadians” were told to surrender their new citizenship certificates, a few received letters over the weekend confirming their citizenship claims are valid once again.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson said Monday the department is now reviewing the roughly 4,100 citizenship by descent claims made under an amendment to the law that offers a path to citizenship for those with Canadian ancestors.

Citizenship certificates will not be suspended unless the review turns up a problem with a document already issued, the spokesperson said.

A statement the department issued last week said it is temporarily pausing the finalization of citizenship certificates related to the citizenship by descent amendment passed as Bill C-3.

That amendment allows people born before Dec. 15, 2025 to claim Canadian citizenship if they can prove a direct line to a Canadian ancestor generation-by-generation.

Many of those making citizenship claims under this new rule are Americans.

The department has said it sent letters earlier this month to “a few dozen” people who received citizenship under the citizenship by descent law demanding they surrender their proof of citizenship pending further review….

Source: Ottawa reverses orders to surrender some ‘lost Canadian’ citizenship certificates

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Canada’s immigration policies are creating new barriers for international students

2026/06/24 Leave a comment

Good example of leanings of immigration scholars, many of whom remain in denial over some of the abuses:

…The International Student Program reflects a deeper contradiction in Canada’s approach to international students. Canada encourages international students to come here and support economic growth. However, those students are now also blamed for abusing the system and exacerbating pressures on social services and housing.

For example, a recent House of Commons report suggested international students misuse asylum claims and recommended a cap on applicants from countries with high student application rates, such as India, Nigeria, and the Republic of Guinea.

There is an urgent need for more equitable policies. The way IRCC connects geopolitics and domestic issues with student recruitment legitimizes discriminatory immigration screening based on students’ race, ethnicity and nationality.

Current caps have led to a reduction of more than 60 per cent in international student enrolment. Yet, the recent Auditor General report showed a significant increase in students from European countries even after the enrolment cap was implemented.

Emma Harden-Wolfson Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, McGill University

Source: Canada’s immigration policies are creating new barriers for international students

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