Immigration

Asian Pacific Post NEWS: Canada offers PR on arrival status for foreign caregivers

Jenny Kwan, the NDP immigration critic, said she is thrilled that the government is finally honouring caregivers and treating them with the respect and dignity they deserve by granting them permanent residence status on arrival.

“This is a significant victory for the caregiver community. It means that they will no longer be subject to exploitation and abuse. It means they can have their rights protected as they contribute to Canada's economic, social and cultural fabric,” Kwan posted on Facebook.

The Vancouver East MP said there are 9,000 caregiver PR applications in the backlog. The average processing time is 3 years.

“The government must ensure adequate resources and immigration levels numbers are allocated to process these applications expeditiously so that they do not further languish in the backlog,” she said.

According to Statistics Canada in 2022, 13.4 million Canadians aged 15 years and older (42%)—over  two in five people in this age group—provided unpaid care in the previous 12 months to children younger than 15 years old or to youth aged 15 years and older and adults with a long-term condition or disability.

Of these unpaid caregivers, 13% provided care to both of these care-dependent groups, meaning that 1.8 million Canadians older than 15 years were "sandwiched" between multiple care responsibilities, said a report from McGill University.

 

 

Globe NEWS: Caregivers from abroad to be given permanent residence on arrival under new pilot programs

To qualify for the new enhanced pilot programs, foreign caregivers will need to have an offer for a full-time home-care job, meet the language requirements, hold the equivalent of a Canadian high-school diploma, and have recent and relevant work experience.

“This new pathway means that caregivers can more easily find proper work with reliable employers and have a clear, straightforward access to permanent-resident status as soon as they arrive in Canada,” IRCC said in a statement.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said there is a shortage of caregivers in Canada while those who come here from abroad to fill jobs are too often exploited and abused. She said their precarious immigration status makes them more vulnerable to poor treatment by employers.

She said Canada should stop classifying caregivers, who help many Canadians, as “low-skill” workers.

In an interview, Ms. Kwan said current language and education standards that caregivers must meet to gain permanent residence – brought in by the Conservatives before Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister – are unnecessarily stringent and have until now acted as a “roadblock” to caregivers settling in Canada.

 

 

CIM#103: Pension Transferability and Access to MPF, and Delays in PR and Visas for Hong Kongers

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all three of the witnesses, from Canada-Hong Kong Link, VSSDM and Hong Kong Watch, not just for appearing today but for your ongoing work in support of Hong Kongers. I truly, deeply appreciate that.

My first question is around the interim measure. The government has announced that its interim measure is really meant to be a bridging process. However, related to that and as we heard, what Hong Kongers really need is permanent resident status.

Related to the permanent resident status are the immigration level numbers, because the level planned this year under the categories of H and C and protected persons is set at 13,500. Next year it will be at 8,000, and the following year it will be at 8,000 also.

In light of those limitations, in order to facilitate the processing of applications for PR for Hong Kongers, would the government need to change the immigration level numbers and have a dedicated path for Hong Kongers?

I'm going to start with you, Andy, please.

National Post: Government bill will allow Canadians to pass citizenship rights to kids born abroad

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who is supporting the Liberal bill, said it was past time the issue is addressed. She said Canadians travel the world to work and study, and should be able to hold onto their citizenship rights.

“Canada is a global community of Canadians: people travel, people study abroad, people work abroad, people fall in love abroad, people have families abroad.”

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled last year that the previous version of the law was unconstitutional, and gave Ottawa until June 19 to fix the problem.

“This is an example of Conservatives having taken away Canadians’ rights and something they hold most dear to them, in their citizenship,” Miller said Thursday.

Kwan accused the Conservatives of filibustering a previous attempt to address the “lost Canadians” issue through a private member’s bill last year, even though they have said they are committed to addressing the issue.

“People will remember 15 years ago, it was the Conservatives that brought in this law. It was the Conservatives that stripped children of Canadian parents the right to pass on the citizenship automatically to the children,” she said. “As a result of that, the Conservatives have created a second-class citizen in Canada.”

 

Toronto Star: ‘Monumental’: Canada to extend citizenship to children born abroad, restoring rights of ‘lost Canadians’

“People travel. People study abroad. People work abroad. People fall in love abroad. People have families abroad,” said NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan, who joined Miller at the media scrum.

“But guess what? As a result of this law, it meant that for some of those families, they have had to be separated from their children. Some children have been rendered stateless.”

Kwan also sniped at the opposition Conservatives for filibustering a recent bill by the Senate that called on similar changes to extend citizenship by descent to children born abroad to Canadians.

“We have to fix this once and for all,” she said. ”I’m standing here not for partisan reasons. I’m standing here because this is the right thing to do, not only a moral imperative to do this, but also a legal imperative.”

CPAC: Canada Introduces citizenship bill with NDP amendments to fix Lost Canadians injustice

Today is a historic day for Lost Canadians and their families and I am happy to stand with them and the Minister of Immigration at the press conference.  

Legislation has been introduced to rectify the Conservative's punitive and unconstitutional law that stripped children of Canadian parents the right to Canadian citizenship creating two classes of Canadians.  Today is a historic day for Lost Canadians and their families and I am happy to stand with them and the Minister of Immigration at the press conference.  
 
For 15 years, this unjust law caused significant hardship and suffering to many Canadian families.  It has separated families and rendered children stateless.   If failed to recognize that Canadians are global citizens who travel aboard, study aboard and work aboard.  They fall in love aboard and they have families aboard.  

Last year, parliamentarians across party lines had a chance to fix the Lost Canadians issue by passing Bill S-245 as amended by the NDP.  Instead, the Conservatives filibustered debate on the bill for 30 hours to delay its passage and refuse to allow it to advance to third reading.

When it became obvious that the Conservatives will continue playing games with the lives of Lost Canadians and their families by doing everything they can to block passage of the legislative fixes, I approached successive immigration ministers to call on them to bring in a government bill with the NDP amendments.  
 
The government has a moral imperative and  a legal one to act after the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that the creation of two classes of Canadian citizenship is unconstitutional.  

Let's pass the bill expeditiously and end the legacy of the Conservatives' unconstitutional treatment of second generation born abroad Canadians. 

CPAC VIDEO: NDP MPs Comment on Govt’s Family Reunification Efforts – May 22, 2024

NDP MPs Jenny Kwan, Alexandre Boulerice and Heather McPherson raise concerns over the government’s handling of getting family members of Canadians who are stuck in conflicts abroad to Canada.

They are joined in Ottawa by Palestinian-Canadians Israa Alsaafin and Safinaz El-Sohl and Sudanese-Canadian Einam Mohammadian. (no interpretation)

CIMM#98: Government's Response to Afghanistan Final Report, Processing Times for PR Pathways for Hongkongers and Canadian Armed Forces' Applications

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

At this juncture, I would like to move the following motion:

That the committee request that Global Affairs (GAC) provide the unredacted findings of the internal investigation regarding the issuance of “inauthentic” facilitation letters to third parties to the law clerk and parliamentary counsel for redaction according to his discretion before being sent to the committee, and further that GAC provide to the community the unredacted name and title of the official(s) within GAC who provided the “inauthentic” facilitation letter to George Young, acknowledged receipt of Senator McPhedran's email and shared the names of the vulnerable Afghans with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada no later than 30 days following the adoption of the motion.

Mr. Chair, I'm moving this motion today because we heard on August 25, 2021, from Senator McPhedran. In her testimony, she said, “the facilitation template in question was sent to me by George Young”. That's a quote from her testimony. She went on further to say, “Mr. Young received this facilitation template from Global Affairs Canada, and he told me this in writing.” She then further stated:

Names for the rolling list were sent frequently to George Young and Mr. Oz Jungic, a senior policy adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Jungic confirmed receipt of the names to me on August 24, with an assurance that they would do everything they could to try to help get these people out.

Senator McPhedran went on to say, “Mr. Young stated that he had put these names 'into the system'.” She also said:

When George Young sent me the facilitation templates on August 25, he wrote, with the first one, “I have received this from a colleague at GAC...try it. George.”

What we need to get to is who from GAC provided that “inauthentic” facilitation letter to George Young.

Mr. Chair, to that end, I am moving this motion so that we can get that information.

 

HANSARD: Order Questions on immigration processing backlog

HANSARD: Order Questions with regard to the temporary public policy to facilitate temporary resident visas for certain extended family affected by the Gaza crisis