The NDP critic for Indigenous Services, Northern Affairs and Crown-Indigenous Relations, MP Lori Idlout (Nunavut), and NDP critic for Women and Gender Equality, Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre), made the following joint statement
MEDIA RELEASE: Human Rights Watch report confirms the Liberals are failing Indigenous communities
MEDIA RELEASE: Human Rights Watch report confirms the Liberals are failing Indigenous communities
“On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch released their world report, including Canada’s human rights violations against Indigenous peoples. They pointed to the ongoing genocide against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, a lack of access to clean drinking water and a housing crisis impacting Indigenous communities.
Despite Prime Minister Trudeau's own acknowledgment that the situation constitutes a genocide, Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people continue to go missing or be murdered at alarming rates. This is a national emergency that must be urgently addressed.
Other fundamental rights such as access to clean drinking water and basic housing continue to be in crisis. In Nunavut for example, living in overcrowded and dilapidated homes is the norm, with deeply inadequate government action to fix the housing crisis. Shockingly, families are often forced to use duct tape to repair their homes. All people have the right to live in dignity, including Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Equally concerning is the failure of the Liberal government to keep their promise of lifting all long-term water boil advisories by 2021. Shamefully, there are still 33 such advisories and 29 short-term drinking water advisories still in effect. This is an urgent crisis.
The federal government must act on the international concerns about their ongoing failure to uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples, rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which is part of Canadian law as demonstrated by Bill C-15.
We call on the government to immediately implement the 231 Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action and uphold all rights affirmed within UNDRIP. New Democrats will keep fighting to ensure the government takes action so, Indigenous peoples have the justice they deserve.”
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How your data determines what you pay!
What if the price you pay at the store is different than the person standing next to you?
Corporations can use personal data such as location, device type, browsing history, purchase behavior, login status, and loyalty cards/programs to profile consumers and determine what different people are charged for the same goods and services.
How can we stop this from happening in Canada?
Join MP Jenny Kwan, Patrick Johnson - President of UFCW 1518, Jim Stanford - Economist and Director of Centre for Future Work, Avi Lewis - NDP Leader and Benjamin Fung - Canada Research Chair in Data Mining for Cybersecurity and other experts, for a public forum and community conversation about what surveillance pricing means for consumers and workers, how technology and personal data are changing the way prices are set, and what everyday people can do to fight back.
*Scan QR code, click the image or this link to register your attendance - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/your-data-their-price-a-town-hall-on-surveillance-pricing-tickets-1998495899032
IRCC taking 33 months to process applications in wake of 'lost Canadians' law
When Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith prepared in January for the arrival of their first child, the choice seemed simple.
Smith would give birth in her home country of Jamaica where she had family support, and then they would together return to Montreal three months later.
At the time, the wait time for the citizenship certificate that their daughter, Sofianne, needed to fly back to Canada was between four and six weeks.
But more than eight months later, they're still waiting.
Sud is back at work in Montreal while Smith and Sofianne are still in Jamaica.
"It's been very frustrating," said Sud. "I was lucky to be there for three months … but I've been missing every step since, and it's been very difficult to be apart from them."
He's not alone.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is struggling to handle a flood of citizenship applications — many of them from a change to federal law late last year that allows anyone who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor to apply.
That backlog is preventing Canadians born abroad like Sofianne from coming home.
According to the department's most recent update on Sept. 3, there are 136,000 applications waiting to be processed. Those applying for a citizenship certificate now face a wait of 33 months.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan called on the government to restore staffing and resources that were cut at IRCC, calling the processing delays "simply unreasonable and unacceptable."
*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-lost-canadians-c3-backlog-9.7366981