The following is a statement from Jenny Kwan, NDP Critic for Immigration and Refugees:
On behalf of the New Democratic Party, I wish to express my profound disappointment with the reinstatement of President Donald Trump’s travel ban. This ban ...
NDP to Trudeau: Reject travel ban, increase Canada’s refugee commitments
NDP to Trudeau: Reject travel ban, increase Canada’s refugee commitments
On behalf of the New Democratic Party, I wish to express my profound disappointment with the reinstatement of President Donald Trump’s travel ban. This ban unfairly targets all refugees and individuals from six predominately Muslim countries. Claims that it will benefit US national security are not supported by a shred of evidence.
Canadians wholly reject any travel ban based on race or religion. We expect our leaders to be brave enough to stand up for human rights and against policies that put lives at risk, while perpetuating hate and fear. Unfortunately Canada’s Prime Minister has refused to directly criticize this ban.
When President Trump’s original travel ban was announced, Prime Minister Trudeau tweeted out a message to refugees welcoming them to Canada even as his government shut down the private sponsorship program set up to assist Syrian refugees. Since then he has failed to take any measures that would enhance Canada’s refugee program in the wake of such a ban.
Not only has Prime Minister Trudeau refused to condemn this ban, he’s refused to increase the number of refugees Canada takes in and placed a hard cap on a category of privately sponsored refugees. Additionally, and despite opposition from across the country, Trudeau has refused to suspend the so-called ‘Safe Third Country Agreement’ which prevents asylum seekers from crossing the border at formal points of entry. Instead, hundreds of asylum seekers have been forced to make dangerous crossings over the Canadian border, some losing appendages to frost bite and one woman losing her life.
Canada has a duty and a responsibility to work with the international community to address the growing refugee crisis, a crisis which will only be made worse by the US travel ban. The government of Canada should condemn this ban, suspend the Safe Third Country Agreement and increase our commitments to support refugees.”
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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