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 ,

Thousands of home care workers are stuck in limbo as permanent residency stream faces delays

2026/07/21 Leave a comment

Another policy and operational failure:

…In March, 2025, they applied for permanent residence through a dedicated immigration stream for home care workers. The program took 5,500 applications on a first-come, first-served basis, a fraction of total demand. Those who managed to get their applications accepted through an online portal were ecstatic, convinced that they were now on a straightforward path to obtain Canadian permanent residency. 

But more than 15 months later, they have received no updates from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on their applications. Many are now living in Canada on expired work permits, unable to legally work. Others hold work permits that are expiring in the near future, and are frantically searching for alternative immigration pathways. All are hoping that someone in the group chat will provide a sliver of information or a positive update that will offer them a lifeline to remain in the country.

IRCC’s website states that the current PR processing timeline for home care workers is a whopping 76 months – far longer than the average wait time for other immigration streams. There are roughly 38,000 total applications in the queue for home care workers, including those from other years….

“When you reduce the total permanent resident quota, you have to make tough decisions on what applications you want to process first. Right now, it is clear that care workers are not being prioritized,” said Lou Janssen Dangzalan, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer. …

Source: Thousands of home care workers are stuck in limbo as permanent residency stream faces delays

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Coren | It can be healthy to debate Israel and Palestine but on the ground little will change

2026/07/21 Leave a comment

Good discussion regarding the Church of England’s reference to genocide:

…In a highly controversial vote, they encouraged congregations to read and engage with “Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide,” a report by Palestinian Christians that accuses Israel of genocide and describes the country as a “colonial enterprise.” In other words, the report wasn’t adopted as church policy but accepted as a “heartfelt expression of the lived experience of Palestinian Christians.”

The country’s chief rabbi described the decision as “shameful” and a “sad day for Jewish-Christian relations” and numerous Anglicans have complained that the language used is unnecessarily provocative, one-sided, and taken directly out of a Marxist playbook.

That’s harsh because Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally and fellow bishops have repeatedly and passionately condemned antisemitism, and during the debate she spoke of “the pain and trauma of the appalling 7 October attacks” that remains, “a daily reality for Jewish people in Israel and around the world.”

While Palestinians certainly and understandably feel as if they’re constant victims of colonialism, Zionism itself was an ideology produced by desperation rather than a policy based on exploitation. The 1290 expulsion from England was one of many throughout Europe, accompanied by mass slaughter, terror, discrimination, and eventually the Holocaust. Jews in Arab countries were expelled from where they’d lived for centuries between 1948 and the 1970s. Where else could all of these people go apart from to a land where they have proven historic and genetic links?

As for genocide, we often hear that scholars of the subject believe that the Gaza campaign and the general Israeli approach to Palestine is indeed genocidal. Actually, there’s a profound division among experts. While Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is often unjust and the military campaign in Gaza appallingly costly, does Israel seriously want to murder every single Palestinian wherever they live?

The most infamous example of genocide was the Nazi attempt to eliminate the Jews as a people and expunge them from human consciousness. It was industrial mass slaughter and had nothing to do with national security or territorial expansion. Surely, we can criticize Israeli actions without employing such language.

Perhaps if the Israel-Palestine issue had been more thoroughly and openly discussed in the past, and if churches had had the courage to do so, the narrative would now be more considered, but some of those currently so outraged by the synod decision were in the past the fiercest opponents of any sort of dissent. Yes, it’s true that Israel is treated differently than other countries by its opponents, but also by its supporters. Double standards do have that tendency.

The fuss over all this will continue for a while but on the ground in Israel and Palestine it will change little. Those at the synod were good people rather than a performative street mob and genuinely do seek peace and progress. They also look to a Jewish Messiah who told his followers to shock the world with their ideas and guaranteed them that it wouldn’t be easy. He preached all this largely to a Jewish people living in a Jewish land, and the irony of it all should be obvious.

Something has to change but language matters very much indeed.

Source: Opinion | It can be healthy to debate Israel and Palestine but on the ground little will change

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

CPC: Convicted Criminals From G7 Countries Now Eligible to Enter Canada Under Bill C-3

2026/07/20 Leave a comment

Unfortunately, the government approach on this point was correct as a criminality check of citizens by descent would most likely not be upheld by the court. But the open ended nature of C-3 that in theory extends the right of citizenship to prior the Citizenship Act of 1947 and the birth of Canada as a country in 1867, may well create operational problems for IRCC.

Given the documentation requirements for Canadian ancestors that would anchor any claim, it may well be that relatively few apply and the reports from lawyers, archivists and others may reflect an initial demand, rather than an ongoing one:

Politically, of course, this plays well:

Today, the Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner, Conservative Shadow Minister of Immigration and Citizenship, released the following statement regarding reports of non-citizens convicted of serious crimes being able to travel to Canada freely because of citizenship law changes made by the Liberals in Bill C-3:

“Should a person with a criminal record be entitled to automatic citizenship in Canada? The Liberal government seems to think so.

“Back in November, Conservatives proposed an amendment to Liberal Bill C-3 that would have barred non-citizens with criminal records from being eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship by descent. While it was initially adopted, the Liberals later gutted the amendment.

“Now today, just like Conservatives warned would happen, we are finding out that non-citizens who have been convicted of serious crimes, such as those in the United States, are eligible to apply for citizenship through Bill C-3. This is happening precisely because the Liberals gutted our amendment.

“This isn’t the only fallout of the Liberals’ misguided Bill C-3. Continually conflicting information from the Minister on who is eligible to apply is creating massive backlogs in legitimate citizenship application processing. Unfortunately, this is the direct outcome of a law that was overly expansive and doomed to fail from the start. 

“All that was needed was a very targeted law change, and the problem of lost citizenship for a very small group of people would have been fixed. No political party had a problem with fixing that precise issue, but the Liberals instead went far beyond what was required and decided to open the floodgates.

“The result? We have seen a Pandora’s box unleashed with the changes the Liberals pushed through over warnings the Opposition raised. Millions of people are discovering they are eligible for citizenship. Our citizenship laws are now some of the most overly-permissive in the whole world, with the ability to claim citizenship if a single relative, no matter how distantly back they are, was a Canadian citizen.

“This is a fundamental change affecting what it means to be Canadian. Citizens of convenience are not what this country is founded on, and it goes against everything we stand for. Bestowing citizenship on those with no connection whatsoever to Canada is a surefire way of asking for trouble, and lets those we may not want into our society, with full legal and voting powers.

“The problems created by Bill C-3 are already showing themselves. How long until a US mass murderer receives citizenship? Or those who have never paid into the system seek to access Canadian healthcare? I call upon the Liberals to support common sense amendments Conservatives proposed to Bill C-3 in order to fix the mess they made.”

Source: Convicted Criminals From G7 Countries Now Eligible to Enter Canada Under Bill C-3

Detailed brief from immigration consultant Amir Ismail (RCIC #R412319) where this has become a new line of business for many consultants and lawyers:

Bill C-3 and the Felon Question: Why American Criminals Can Now Legally Enter Canada

Bill C-3 is a genuine human rights achievement. It corrected a constitutional injustice that fractured Canadian families for decades and left hundreds of thousands of legitimate descendants without access to a status they were always entitled to hold.

It also created a real, legally airtight pathway through which individuals with serious criminal records in the United States can obtain Canadian citizenship and enter Canada without any border recourse available to CBSA.

Both of those things are true at the same time.

The political fight over this law is not over. The debate about mandatory criminal checks will return to Parliament. The volume of applications from the United States will keep climbing. And the operational strain on IRCC will intensify.

Filed under C-3, Citizenship Tagged with , ,

Abela | Of course my employers need certain private information — but their questions are getting more uncomfortable, and I think I know why

2026/07/20 Leave a comment

Good distinction between census and employer questions:

…All in, one could perhaps be excused for thinking the right way to answer my employer’s question concerning my “pattern of sexual, emotional, and/or romantic attraction to men, women, and/or people of other genders” is not to tick the “I prefer not to answer” box but to opt instead for a respectful “none of your business” write-in.

Are there places where the reservations I’ve suggested don’t come into view?

Yes: the Canadian census, for example, asks some similarly probing questions — but from my perspective, it has a different standing. The information it requests is part of the relationship of citizenship, in which the government has obligations to the citizenry, and the citizenry has reciprocal obligations to the government. Census data can be crucial for governments to effectively discharge their democratic obligations, as well as to materially and legally protect personhood and dignity. And this data is, in the aggregate, also made available to the broader public.

No such symmetry of right and obligation in an original social contract exists between employees and employers. Within the enabling constraints of law, I sell labour to my employer — nothing more, nothing less.

Perhaps we have here a case of competing interests colliding, with no easy reconciliation in sight between protecting the personal sphere and creating a more just working environment. Even still, we owe it to ourselves not to be blind to the casual erosion of the personal sphere.

Paul Abela is an associate professor of philosophy at Acadia University.

Source: Opinion | Of course my employers need certain private information — but their questions are getting more uncomfortable, and I think I know why

Filed under DEI, employment equity, Multiculturalism Tagged with

Bill 21 brings Chief Justice Richard Wagner to the decision of a lifetime [citizenship]

2026/07/20 Leave a comment

Good long read on Justice Wagner, including the discussion of the Vavilov case where I understand the issue of coherence in rulings of administrative tribunals. On the other hand, the Court completely missed the substantive citizenship issue, that foreign officials did not benefit from their children being granted Canadian citizenship if born in Canada. That they were not “official” diplomats but undercover spies, and the resulting “loophole,” failed a basic common sense test:

…The Chief Justice’s most important ruling will sound a bit boring: a 2019 judgment called Vavilov that resolved a legal debate in administrative law. This is a mostly unseen but omnipresent part of the legal system, where the courts assess government decision-making and citizens can seek review of rulings from tribunals such as the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 

Until the Vavilov ruling, how judges reviewed such decisions was a mess. There was little coherence and a lot of wasted court time.

Chief Justice Wagner sought to solve the problem. The Supreme Court took on three similar appeals, invited interveners to join in and, unusually, solicited outside legal help. 

The central case was that of Alexander Vavilov, born in Toronto in 1994. His parents were Russian spies, the inspiration for the television show The Americans. After the FBI arrested the spies in 2010 near Boston, Mr. Vavilov applied to renew his Canadian passport. In 2014, the federal Registrar of Canadian Citizenship cancelled his certificate of citizenship.

The registrar’s reading of federal regulations, and the Citizenship Act, determined Mr. Vavilov should not have been granted Canadian citizenship at birth because his parents had been employees of a foreign government.

Mr. Vavilov won at the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision. Chief Justice Wagner, the lead author, ruled that the registrar’s conclusion was unreasonable. The larger legal breakthrough: the judgment clarified how courts should review administrative decisions writ large. …

Source: Bill 21 brings Chief Justice Richard Wagner to the decision of a lifetime

Filed under Birthright Citizenship, Citizenship Tagged with ,

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