Sunday, May 23, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS:
DON'T HIDE THE TRUTH MINISTER KENNEY:
Last November a new guide for immigrants to Canada was issued by the federal government. Significantly it omitted references to the decriminalization of gay people and recognition of gay marriage. This was despite the fact that said references had been included in previous drafts of the pamphlet. The responsibility for the omission lays with Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney who vetoed the sections.
Now no doubt Minister Kenney would like it very much if gay people had no such protection in Canada, but they do. I guess the next best thing in his mind, petty as such an action might be, is to eliminate all references to this fact in any matter that he has power over ie to lie by omission. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has a campaign to pressure the Minister to reinsert the missing sections. Here's the story.
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Tell Jason Kenney:
Tell Jason Kenney:
Equal rights are an important part of being Canadian
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney blocked references to LGBTTI rights in a new study guide for immigrants, which was released last November. News of the actions taken by Kenney, who opposed same-sex marriage when it was debated in Parliament, has just become public.
Documents show Kenney chose to omit references to Canada’s decriminalization of homosexual sex and recognition of same-sex marriage rights despite recommendations from his senior department officials. Both references were contained in earlier drafts of the 63-page guide.
Canada has been a leader in rights for LGBTTI persons. We guarantee same-sex spousal pensions and benefits. We have equal rights to marriage. These are hard won rights that Canadians and CUPE members are proud of and should be recognized in documents that our federal government produces.
By putting pressure on Minister Kenney, we can make sure that Canada's citizenship guide promotes the importance of the fundamental freedoms and rights outlined in the Charter.
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney blocked references to LGBTTI rights in a new study guide for immigrants, which was released last November. News of the actions taken by Kenney, who opposed same-sex marriage when it was debated in Parliament, has just become public.
Documents show Kenney chose to omit references to Canada’s decriminalization of homosexual sex and recognition of same-sex marriage rights despite recommendations from his senior department officials. Both references were contained in earlier drafts of the 63-page guide.
Canada has been a leader in rights for LGBTTI persons. We guarantee same-sex spousal pensions and benefits. We have equal rights to marriage. These are hard won rights that Canadians and CUPE members are proud of and should be recognized in documents that our federal government produces.
By putting pressure on Minister Kenney, we can make sure that Canada's citizenship guide promotes the importance of the fundamental freedoms and rights outlined in the Charter.
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THE LETTER:
Please go to this link to send the following letter to Minister Kenney.
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I am writing to condemn your decision to remove all references to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans rights from Canada’s new guide for immigrants released last November.
The booklet provides immigrants applying for Canadian citizenship with information about Canada and why our country is a great place to live and work for everyone, especially members of the LGBTTI community.
As a representative of our federal government, you have a responsibility to uphold the rights of all Canadians as guaranteed under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Under Canadian law, all citizens have the right to freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
I demand that all references to these rights be put back into the guide and further that your department proudly promote the importance of these rights to citizenship applicants.
Labels: Canadian labour, Canadian politics, CUPE, gay marriage, gay rights, immigrants, Jason Kenney, petitions
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
CANADIAN POLITICS:
DON'T CLOSE CANADA TO REFUGEES:
News of the following demonstration, sponsored by No One is Illegal Toronto comes Molly's way via the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). The issue has been in the news recently with the Harper government deciding to impose visa requirements on visitors from both the Czech Republic and Mexico. Needless to say this has led to all sorts of bitterness in the countries affected. The supposed justification is that many people from these countries (the Roma in the case of the Czech Republic and those wishing to escape the drug wars in the case of Mexico) apply for a refugee status when they land in Canada, a status that the ruling Conservatives feel they don't deserve. The question of whether the Roma in all of eastern Europe are being persecuted (they are) or whether parts of Mexico are ineed overwhelmingly dangerous is beside the point to the government.
To Molly's eyes this sort of petty grandstanding (the stacked refugee boards routinely deny such status anyways, at least to Mexicans) on the Conservative's part has all the aspects of "throwing a bone" to their more rabid right wing supporters. This sort of thing, along with such visible petty actions as denying funding to gay festivals (in Montréal) or demoting ministers who let such grants slip by (as in Toronto), will, according to the hopes of Harper and his cronies, serve to pacify the right who must look askance at the recent conversion of the Conservatives to what will undoubtedly be very long term deficits and who will be ill at ease with the need to serve a more left wing administration in Washington. Throw the buggers a few little bones and they'll keep on marching out from the churches to the voting booths. Or so the Conservatives hope.
Others are appalled at this bit of vindictiveness. Here's the story of what's happening tomorrow. If you live down TO way try and join up with the demo.
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No One Is Illegal-Tor July 23: Don't Close the Border on Refugees:
No One Is Illegal-Toronto Events, Updates & News
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No Visa? No Rights?!
DON'T CLOSE THE BORDER ON REFUGEES!
Community Rally & March
Thursday, July 23rd 1:00pm
Meet at the corner of Davenport & Perth (to get there by transit, take the168 Symington bus from Dundas West station)
Come raise your voice against the Canadian government's recent decision to impose visa requirements on Mexico and the Czech Republic!
Using arbitrary powers, granted to him under Bill C-50, Kenney single-handedly slammed the door on migrants and refugees from Mexico and the Czech Republic last week.
Kenney's decision shows blatant disregard for asylum-seekers fleeing racism, violence and persecution and prevents families from reuniting. Following US-style workplace raids this spring, these new visa requirements are a clear escalation in the attack on migrant communities that force people to apply for a tourist visa before being able to apply for refuge. This change limits poor and working people's entrance to Canada to precarious and temporary work programs.
Rather than considering the individual merits of each case as stated under the Refugee Protection Act, Kenney has just decided that all claims from these countries are "bogus and illegitimate"!
NAFTA and the SPP regime are responsible for displacing millions within Mexico. The American led, Canadian backed War on Drugs has resulted in violence that has killed over 6000 people in 2008 alone. On one hand, the Canadian government has warned Canadians against traveling to Mexico (in a travel advisory this spring issued by DFAIT), but on the other hand continues to assert that Queers, Women surviving domestic violence and others fleeing persecution can be safe in Mexico.
Obviously there are two standards of safety: one for Canadians and one for people in the global south. The escalation of racist violence in the Czech Republic has gone unmentioned in Canadian and EU political circles. Kenney has turned a blind eye to vicious neo-Nazi attacks on the Roma people. Kenney also lies about the failures in Roma refugee cases - for when the Immigration and Refugee Board has actually heard a Roma case, even this arbitrary body has granted status 85% of the time.
Lets learn from history - don't let the borders be shut on refugees and immigrants!
Join your neighbors in defense of our rights!
Demand Status for All!
There will be speakers at the rally from the Roma Community Centre, the FCJ Refugee Centre, No One Is Illegal-Toronto and others.
Organized by the Bread and Bricks Davenport-West Social Justice Group. For more info call 416.652.7867 ext. 237.
Endorsed by: No One Is Illegal-Toronto
To read more on Kenney's lies and attacks, read:
on facebook:
...email at nooneisillegal@riseup.net
...facebook at
...twitter at
...youtube at
...join the listserv:
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
10 Britain St.
Toronto, ON M5A 1R6
416-925-6939
Labels: Canadian politics, conservatives, current events, Czech Republic, demonstrations, immigrants, Jason Kenney, Mexico, No One is Illegal Toronto, OCAP, refugees., Roma., Toronto
Sunday, March 29, 2009
CANADIAN POLITICS:
RESCIND THE BAN ON GEORGE GALLOWAY:
The horribly "dangerous" goof pictured to the left is British MP George Galloway. He was been expelled from the British Labour Party after more than one occasion of making kissy face with any number of dictators. At present he masterminds (if that word is applicable) a very minor English political party called 'Respect'. Respect is devoted to squaring the circle by trying to create the illusion of a coalition between jihadists and leftists.
That's all fine and good. Goofier things have been tried by many others besides "rubber man" pictured above. What makes this situation unique is that GG has been banned from entering Canada by our Conservative government. On the grounds of "being a threat to Canada's national security". Well, I doubt that the leftist court jester pictured above is a threat to anyone's security. I also have no doubt that he is just as much a thug as he has been portrayed as. Being disgusting, however, is a far cry from being a national security threat.
The following is a story from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, come to Molly's attention via the Statewatch website. Molly agrees with this, without any illusions about Mr. Galloway's character. To my mind this is a direct attack on freedom of speech and little else. It shows the desires that lurk within the federal Conservative caucus.
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Press Release: British MP banned from Canada: Ottawa must reverse shameful decision:
OTTAWA – March 20, 2009 – The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group is calling on Ottawa to reverse its decision and allow well-known British MP and peace activist, George Galloway, to enter to Canada.
“The Canadian minister for Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney has the discretionary power to issue a permit allowing Mr. Galloway to enter Canada,” said Roch Tassé, national coordinator for the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group. “Barring a British member of Parliament who doesn't share our government's views is embarrassing and shameful: this is clearly censorship and an attempt to stifle freedom of opinion and freedom of speech.”
A minister's spokesman told reporters in the U.K that the Respect MP is inadmissible on national security grounds because of his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there. He warned that he would be turned away if he attempted to enter the country.
Galloway is due to speak at a public forum Resisting War from Gaza to Kandahar, hosted by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, at a downtown church on March 30, 2009.
Responding to the news, the MP said he would fight the ban: “This decision, gazetted in Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, is a very sad day for the Canada we have known and loved – a bastion of the freedoms that supporters of the occupation of Afghanistan claim to be defending.” Please see full story at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/20/george-galloway-banned-canada
The ICLMG is a pan-Canadian coalition of civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The coalition brings together 38 NGOs, unions, professional associations, faith groups, environmental organizations, human rights and civil liberties advocates, as well as groups representing immigrant and refugee communities in Canada.
Information : Roch Tassé – 613-241-5298
Labels: Canadian politics, conservatives, freedom of speech, George Galloway, Jason Kenney
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
CANADIAN POLITICS:
CONSERVATIVE SLIP-UP ON IMMIGRATION:
One has to hand it to Sneaky Stevie. Riding shotgun on as cranky a crew as the thinly disguised Reform/Alliance party rebranded as the 'Conservatives' must not be easy. You can expect one of the party's true neandertals to slip up and let the cat out of the bag at any time. This happened the other week when the Calgary Centre candidate Lee Richardson let his true feelings show by suggesting that "immigrants" are "responsible for crime". Oops. You can believe that amongst your friends at the local fundamentalist church and at Conservative booze-ups. Just don't mention it is public. To date the Harper team has resisted calls for the party to turf Richardson, Harper being willing to bulldoze a middle way between the Canadian public on the one hand, offended by such remarks, and much of the hardcore of his party who think the idea is spot-on.
The Harper government has a revealing history on immigration. Here's the story from the Harper Index website.
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Ethnic strategy undermined by racial slurs :
Immigrant-bashing attitudes and a growing economic gap for racial minorities neutralize political outreach efforts to new Canadians.
TORONTO, September 26, 08:
Immigrant-bashing attitudes and a growing economic gap for racial minorities neutralize political outreach efforts to new Canadians.
TORONTO, September 26, 08:
This week's immigrant-bashing comments by Calgary Centre Conservative candidate Lee Richardson highlighted the contradictions of his party's strategy to court voters from recent immigrant groups.
Stephen Harper and multiculturalism secretary of state Jason Kenney have worked hard to court "ethnic" voters with grand gestures, public announcements, and hundreds of community meetings. They're working against long-standing impressions that the Conservatives are anti-immigrant, however. These impressions are reinforced both by daily experience and by comments like these, which regularly seem to come from Conservatives.
Even Harper's ethnic diplomat Kenney has had his problems. In 2000, he suggested that "overheated Sikhs" may be "playing the race card" during the general election that year. He later apologized for the comment.
Now Harper is facing demands that Richardson resign or be fired as the party's candidate in Calgary Centre for suggesting that immigrants are prone to commit crimes. "Look at who's committing these crimes ... They're not the kid that grew up next door," Richardson told the Calgary newsmagazine Fast Forward Weekly.
"Particularly in big cities, we've got people that have grown up in a different culture," he said.
"And they don't have the same background in terms of the stable communities we had 20, 30 years ago in our cities and don't have the same respect for authority or people's person or property." Richardson later apologized, saying he was only talking about a "small minority" of people.
Many new Canadians and members of ethnic minorities see comments like these as representing the true feelings of Conservatives, rather than being merely "gaffes".
There is a "perception that the Tories, especially the people behind the new Conservative Party, the old Reformers, are not friends of immigration or immigrants," according to Mohammed Boujanene of the Canadian Arab Federation. He acknowledges "They did make an effort to recruit candidates from different ethnic groups... but at end of day it's not the outreach strategy that counts, it's the policy." Immigrants, he says, feel negative impacts of Conservative policy constantly in everyday life.
"They put forward legislation and policies that are completely against new immigrants and racialized minority groups." The cancellation of the Court Challenges program, anti-terrorism laws, and recent changes to the Immigration and Refugee Act all contribute to a sense of rejection for many. He says it doesn't help that Harper is linked to the US Republicans and that Harper's position on Israel is so "completely biased" that even when Canadian citizens were ducking Israel bombs in Lebanon, in 2006, Harper would not call for a ceasefire.
The controversial changes to immigration under the Conservative budget "were completely oriented toward one goal, the business agenda, and bringing more temporary workers to this country. We're turning our backs on inclusion and on helping families reunify. They gave the minister of immigration incredible power to cherry-pick immigrants, which could open the door to racial profiling," a practice, he says, that the Conservatives have promoted with their security policies. In recent years, immigrants "from the Arab part of the world are waiting longer," says Boujanene. "Refugees coming from Palestine and Iraq have a tougher time." Canada was chastised by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in 2007 for its treatment of refugees, he says.
A further insult many members of racial minorities felt, he says, was the government's refusal to attend the UN conference on anti-racism in Durban.
The Conservatives' outreach to immigrant communities clashes with their record in office, according to Boujanene. In the last election, the Conservatives said they would correct the problems foreign-trained professionals are having getting credentials. "The only thing they did was to open a registry service," he says. "It's sad to have people with medical training driving taxis when we don't all have access to a family doctor."
"We tend to hear more about access to jobs than anything else," says Amy Casipullai, of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. She regularly hears frustrated stories of "internationally trained professionals finding barriers when they try to enter the work force here. They say, 'Canada lied to us. I came here because I was told I could get job in my field.'" She says the Conservatives have achieved some success in immigrant communities with their political initiatives but, "There seems to be tremendous frustration with labour market access."
The other big concern, she says, is delays in sponsorship for family reunification. "There is tremendous frustration around the fact that there are delays, especially delays from certain parts of the world and not others," but she admits some of these problems predate the Conservative government.
The Conservatives' refugee policy, however, is their own, and like Boujanene, she thinks it sends powerful negative signals to immigrants. "There is tremendous concern that Canada's abandoned refugee principles. We seem to have taken a step backward."
The rate of poverty for immigrant families is higher than for non-immigrants, and Boujanene says the gap is growing. A 2007 Wellesley Institute study called The Colour Of Poverty showed that, from 1980 to 2000, the rate of poverty for Canadians of European descent was reduced by 20 percent, while for racial minorities the gap increased by 360 percent. "The Harper government is not doing anything to alleviate these problems," he says.
"If Harper is attracting any one, it is most likely the most conservative members of any given community," said Gurpreet Kaur Sodhi, a multi-cultural policy consultant of Punjabi descent who lives in Toronto. "In some case I would say the attraction is only skin deep and goes away once people become aware of the true cost of the Harper policies."
Kaur Sodhi says that while Harper has recognized the political importance of ethno-cultural communities, he "continues to disrespect" them, citing the immigration changes hidden in the budget implementation act, Bill C-50 as a prominent example.
"Recent research and Census data show that immigrants tend to be underemployed, earn less than their Canadian-born counterparts and experience high levels of contingent employment. Immigrants and refugees from diverse communities experience higher levels of poverty than their Canadian-born counterparts. People from diverse ethno-cultural and faith communities, including those born in Canada are over-represented among Canada's poor. The Harper government has not addressed the racialization of poverty."
Related individuals, organizations and significant events
Immigration changes contradict Conservatives' ethnic outreach
Links and sources
Links and sources
Labels: Canadian politics, elections, Harper Index, immigrants, Jason Kenney, Lee Richardson, racism, Stephan Harper
