MP Rempel Garner: “Temporary” status is a lie. That must change.

2026/07/27 Leave a comment

Of note. Don’t understand the parent reference but do share the concern over C-3 and the shift from jus soli to jus sanguinis:

…The federal government has also shown no willingness to review Canada’s overly permissive automatic citizenship system, wherein the descendants of two non-permanents receive citizenship if they are born in Canada and can in turn can (in some cases) enable a pathway to residency for the parents, instead passing legislation that further enables endless chain migration of persons with few ties to Canada. They have levelled few consequences for profiteers like the operators of foreign student diploma mills, or unscrupulous immigration consultants who continue to scam victims. And the Liberals continue to issue hundreds of thousands of new temporary work and study permits this year alone.

And when it comes to the millions of people in Canada with no status or with expired or expiring visas, precious few have been removed, and the Liberals have given no sign that they plan to scale up capacity to enforce immigration law.

Unless immediately corrected, this continued abuse of the spirit and letter of immigration law and the resulting unfettered opening of Canada’s borders will almost certainly be judged by future historians as the core reason why Canada’s pluralism failed….

Source: “Temporary” status is a lie. That must change.

Filed under C-3, Citizenship Tagged with

Nicolas | Tiers pays sûr, vraiment?

2026/07/27 Leave a comment

Hard to see the STCA surviving the court challenge:

…Empêcher les demandes d’asile de personnes ayant transité par les États-Unis est décrié comme un problème majeur par les défenseurs des droits de la personne depuis des années. Mais avec Trump et la violence politique de l’ICE, la situation s’est lourdement encore aggravée. Lorsque le statut de protection temporaire pour les Haïtiens prendra effectivement fin, et que les expulsions massives reprendront malgré la gravité de la situation à Port-au-Prince, comment Ottawa pourra-t-il se justifier de toujours considérer les États-Unis comme un « pays sûr » ? Et sinon, ces personnes devraient aller où, au juste ? Quelle avenue, quel avenir leur restera-t-il, encore ?”

Source: Chronique | Tiers pays sûr, vraiment?

… Preventing asylum applications from people who have passed through the United States has been decried as a major problem by human rights defenders for years. But with Trump and the political violence of the ICE, the situation has worsened even more. When the temporary protection status for Haitians actually ends, and mass expulsions resume despite the seriousness of the situation in Port-au-Prince, how can Ottawa justify still considering the United States as a “safe country”? And if not, where exactly should these people go? What avenue, what future will they have, again?”

Filed under Immigration, Refugees, Trump administration Tagged with ,

Walker: Please Don’t Thank Us for the Land

2026/07/27 Leave a comment

On the words and actions:

…This is the history a land acknowledgment is meant to answer for. When the Barack Obama Presidential Center opened last month, its acknowledgment was thorough. The dedication honored the Anishinaabe and the Council of Three Fires. A permanent display on the campus names nine nations beyond them, refuses the past tense and quotes Mr. Obama on broken treaties and promises. The criticism came anyway, most of it from conservatives who would ridicule any acknowledgment at all. The Center cost $850 million to construct; its museum charges $30 to enter. If you mean it, give it back, the conservatives said. They are not asking in good faith, but they are asking for the right thing. It names the gap between the words and anything the institution is willing to surrender. One side points at that gap to dismiss the whole thing. Native people point at it to ask what comes next.

The attack from the right took a new form this month. A recent 162-page White House report on the Smithsonian faulted museum officials for opening events with land acknowledgments and criticized exhibits describing Native people forced from their homelands. Acknowledgments, it said, are objectionable no matter their wording. Its complaint is that institutions dwell too long on the theft.

Mine is different. Institutions stop exactly where the cost to them would begin.

The fight over land acknowledgments is a fight about words. The right wants them struck; museums and institutions want to keep saying them. A quarrel about language is one an institution can survive. A reckoning with what it owes would be different.

When my aunt and I spoke about what the land actually means to our people, she said: “The earth is our relative. Everything that has passed returns to the earth. We would say ashes to ashes, but ours was blood and body to our soil.”…

I’m not ready to throw the practice of land acknowledgments out. The form is too small for what it carries; there’s no way to spell out four centuries of dispossession in two sentences. An acknowledgment that opens a conversation, that involves the tribe, that leads somewhere, is different. But the test isn’t in the words. It’s in what action comes after the words have been spoken.

Reid Walker is a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.

Source: Please Don’t Thank Us for the Land

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U.S. deportation roundups are surging while staying out of the public eye

2026/07/24 Leave a comment

Of note:

…The experience here is indicative of what is happening across the country. Mass roundups are escalating even as the White House has mostly stopped publicizing ICE raids since federal agents gunned down two U.S. citizens during immigration operations in Minneapolis in January.

ICE arrested 39,563 people in June, its highest-ever monthly total, according to figures released this week by the agency. That same month, Republican lawmakers authorized a further US$70-billion for the deportation campaign. In July so far, ICE is approaching an average of 1,500 arrests a day.

And after being largely out of the public eye since January, the dragnet is attracting renewed attention after ICE shot and killed two immigrants – Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Joan Sebastián Guerrero in Maine – during traffic stops this month….

Source: U.S. deportation roundups are surging while staying out of the public eye

Filed under Immigration, Trump administration Tagged with ,

ICYMI Lederman: Antisemitic Messi conspiracy theories constitute unsportsmanlike conduct

2026/07/24 Leave a comment

Sigh:

….It’s one thing to lose your mind over a soccer tournament – healthy, even, to immerse yourself in sports and take a breather from the horrors of the world. But this lunacy is evidence of a world infected by antisemitism: where even a good news story – the astonishing prowess of a once-in-a-lifetime player – gets squished into a crazed antisemitic conspiracy theory. Even though the guy is not even Jewish.

“Football unites the world,” the FIFA motto goes.

Not quite, reality has responded. 

After an Israeli politician complained about Mr. Lamal hoisting the Palestinian flag last spring, claiming that this fostered hatred, Spain’s Prime Minister countered that those who consider waving a national flag to be hatred had either “lost their minds or have been blinded by ignominy.” 

There’s a lot of that going around. 

It is impossible, especially in this climate, to hold a sports tournament in a vacuum, completely divorced from the politics of the day. But this – using the World Cup to spread antisemitic conspiracy theories and in the process, demean its greatest player – is so messed up. A beautiful game used for such an ugly purpose.

Source: Antisemitic Messi conspiracy theories constitute unsportsmanlike conduct

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Acadians treated unfairly by immigration department in citizenship U-turn, historians say

2026/07/23 Leave a comment

And nobody in IRCC foresaw any of these issues?

…In a letter from IRCC, a redacted version of which has been seen by The Globe and Mail, IRCC said having reviewed all the documents submitted, their Canadian citizenship certificate application “was approved in error” as documents submitted “were not from acceptable source authorities. It said documents from France and the U.S. ”cannot confirm Canadian citizenship.”

Maurice Basque, a historian at the Centre of Acadian studies at l’Université de Moncton, said, despite being located in France and Louisiana, the documents were original Acadian records. 

He said IRCC civil servants were showing “very poor judgment of what happened to the documents” after the expulsion of Acadians by the British. 

When the British started burning churches, priests or Acadian elders rescued many official records, he said. 

As a result, the original Grand-Pré register is in Baton Rouge, and original Acadian records from Beaubassin, a 17th-century Acadian village and trading centre in what is now Nova Scotia, are in La Rochelle in France, he said. 

“They’re not French or American documents. They’re Acadian documents that are in France and Louisiana. That is a major difference,” Mr. Basque said. 

Jeffrey MacDonald, an IRCC spokesperson, said “we are not in a position to confirm whether a particular document would be accepted or relied upon, as each proof of citizenship application is assessed on its own merits.”…

Source: Acadians treated unfairly by immigration department in citizenship U-turn, historians say

Filed under C-3, Citizenship Tagged with ,

Chronique | Experts sur le banc des accusés

2026/07/23 Leave a comment

Good distinction between experts and deciders:

…“Les experts ne sont ni infaillibles ni élus. Ils peuvent se tromper, débattre, diverger et réviser leurs conclusions. C’est ainsi que la science progresse, par la confrontation des hypothèses et l’accumulation des connaissances. Cette capacité à remettre constamment les connaissances à l’épreuve est aussi l’une des grandes forces de la démocratie. Le rôle des experts n’est pas de dicter ce que la société doit vouloir, mais de nous aider à mieux comprendre les conséquences des choix qui s’offrent à nous.

C’est précisément parce que la science accepte la contradiction qu’elle constitue un outil précieux pour la démocratie. Elle ne prétend pas détenir une vérité absolue ; elle cherche continuellement à améliorer notre compréhension du réel.

Une démocratie mature n’oppose pas les élus aux experts. Au contraire, elle reconnaît que chacun a un rôle bien distinct à jouer. Les chercheurs produisent et interprètent les connaissances. Les citoyens expriment leurs besoins, leurs valeurs et leurs préférences. Les élus arbitrent entre les options et assument les décisions.

“Lorsque les experts se retrouvent sur le banc des accusés, ce n’est pas seulement leur crédibilité qui est mise en jeu. C’est aussi notre capacité collective à prendre des décisions éclairées. Car une démocratie qui cesse d’écouter ceux dont le métier est de produire des connaissances ne devient pas plus démocratique. Elle devient simplement moins bien informée. La science ne remplace pas la démocratie. Elle lui donne les moyens de mieux décider.”

François William Croteau P.-d.g. de l’IRIU, professeur associé à l’UQAM, l’auteur a été maire de Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie. Il a publié «Nos villes au front» chez Atelier 10.

Source: Chronique | Experts sur le banc des accusés

…“ Experts are neither infallible nor elected. They can be wrong, debate, diverge and revise their conclusions. This is how science progresses, through the confrontation of hypotheses and the accumulation of knowledge. This ability to constantly put knowledge to the test is also one of the great strengths of democracy. The role of experts is not to dictate what society must want, but to help us better understand the consequences of the choices available to us.

It is precisely because science accepts contradiction that it is a valuable tool for democracy. It does not claim to have absolute truth; it continually seeks to improve our understanding of reality.

A mature democracy does not oppose elected officials to experts. On the contrary, it recognizes that everyone has a very distinct role to play. Researchers produce and interpret knowledge. Citizens express their needs, values and preferences. The elected officials arbitrate between the options and assume the decisions.

“When experts find themselves in the dock, it is not only their credibility that is at stake. It is also our collective ability to make informed decisions. Because a democracy that stops listening to those whose job is to produce knowledge does not become more democratic. She simply becomes less informed. Science does not replace democracy. It gives him the means to decide better.”

François William Croteau P.-d.g. of IRIU, associate professor at UQAM, the author was mayor of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie. He published “Our cities at the front” at Atelier 10.

Filed under Government Tagged with , ,

Immigrant volunteers provide a safety net to help newcomers navigate life in Canada

2026/07/23 Leave a comment

Important supports:

…Language barriers, unfamiliarity with the system and, sometimes, their immigration status can daunt newcomers when they receive health care in Canada – a process that can be profoundly different from what they were used to in their home countries, and sometimes more expensive. 

To alleviate these problems, many immigrant volunteers go beyond the confines of formal organizations and programs, bridging fellow newcomers to the Canadian health care system and other supports. Many of them are aunts, uncles, sisters and brothers in diaspora communities where kinship extends beyond blood relations. They translate, manage documents and connect people with resources. Often, their presence is all that’s needed, especially for those who are alone in Canada.

Ms. Simbre, 46, has been assisting immigrants from the Philippines since 2012 with health care, labour and legal issues – both through formal networks such as Migrante Ontario and Kababayan Multicultural Centre, and informally through word of mouth. She came to Canada in 2007 as a live-in caregiver. She now serves on the board at Kababayan and works as a research assistant at the York Centre for Asian Research. …

Source: Immigrant volunteers provide a safety net to help newcomers navigate life in Canada

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Michael Barutciski: Gruesome beheading attempt in Belfast a warning against fast-track asylum processes

2026/07/23 Leave a comment

Valid concern but even thorough vetting will not catch everything and everybody:

…This is somewhat similar to the “file review” policy adopted by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), which was recently criticized by The Globe and Mail’s editorial board. This expedited process does involve a background check, which could result in these individuals being found in security databases, and brief interviews with immigration officers and Canada Border Services employees still occur, but experts suggest the questioning during these interviews isn’t sufficient. They believe that in-person hearings are required to probe for inconsistencies in their application details or any connections an applicant may have to terrorist groups.

Contrary to Canada, the U.K. dropped its fast-track process on July 2. British politicians appear to now recognize it was naive to establish a hearing-free process. The Canadian Parliament, on the other hand, continues to allow the IRB to maintain its distinct approach, which the UN considers a gold standard, even though critics see it as a major pull factor which makes it attractive to asylum seekers. Legislation will be needed to limit the IRB’s independence and its tendency towards overly generous procedures.”

“As western countries reform the institution of asylum, the Belfast situation should warn us of the dangers when governments tolerate porous borders and allow their generosity to be abused. The unacceptable violence of extremist protesters in response to the attempted beheading should be dealt with by police and not provide cover for ignoring legitimate concerns that were left unaddressed for too long.

Moreover, we need to stop the cosmopolitan naiveté masquerading as moral superiority: it is not xenophobic to suggest that asylum seekers who have barely been vetted could represent a potential security risk. The challenge is to develop appropriate procedures that balance humane treatment with prudence in a way that reassures local populations.”

Michael Barutciski is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a professor at York University’s Glendon School of Public and International Affairs.

Source: Michael Barutciski: Gruesome beheading attempt in Belfast a warning against fast-track asylum processes

Filed under Immigration, Refugees Tagged with , ,

ICYMI: The math of Canada’s immigration enforcement no longer works—and organized crime knows it

2026/07/23 Leave a comment

Correct assessment of the incentive structure and the relative neglect of enforcement:

…None of this implicates the overwhelming majority of newcomers, who are law-abiding and who are organized crime’s primary victims. Their exposure is the sharpest measure of the failure. As Sundberg put it: “Canada expanded migration without expanding enforcement. We built a much larger system, but not a stronger one—and organized crime has taken advantage of that.”

What these numbers describe, taken together, is an incentive structure. When 550 officers face 33,000 warrants—and net the pile down by barely a thousand a year—low removal figures signal not a low threat but a low probability of being caught, and syndicates recruit accordingly. If nothing changes, CISC’s estimate, already north of 4,000, will keep climbing; screening will remain conviction-based while the threats are network-based; and the next tranche of indictments will again be unsealed in an American courtroom rather than a Canadian one. The syndicates have already run these numbers. There is little evidence, so far, that Ottawa has.

Source: The math of Canada’s immigration enforcement no longer works—and organized crime knows it

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

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