“We have decided to put the interests of our country first—to vote against the budget but to help prevent an election,” NDP interim leader Don Davies tells reporters after government’s budget motion narrowly passes in the House of Commons with two NDP MPs abstaining.
The next nearest post office is about 0.5 kilometres way. Many customers do not drive and go to this outlet because it is within walking distance of their homes or their community centre, said Jenny Kwan, the NDP MP for Vancouver East.
“You have to remember we’re talking about community members in their 70s, 80s and even 90s. Walking is not an easy task,” Kwan said.
Some mail pickups are being redirected to Commercial Drive, nearly 3.5 kilometres away, according to SaveChinatownYVR.
“This post office serves some of the city’s most vulnerable and marginalized residents: low-income individuals, seniors, migrants, and people with disabilities who rely on physical mail for vital government documents, income assistance cheques, health care information, and personal communication,” the organization wrote on a recent social media post.
Kwan said she was alerted to the closure several weeks ago by a post office user who saw a notice tacked on the door.
She said the closure would be “devastating” for Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods, which are already struggling with poverty, mental illness and housing and the opioid crises.
It has triggered a campaign to save the facility, which supporters have called a lifeline for the community.
Canada Post said all its retail operations and business decisions go through an extensive review process to evaluate customer needs.
Wong said the post office is vital to the area, while a petition to save it from closure says it serves some of the city's most vulnerable and marginalized residents.
Wong said it was "definitely a shame" to hear of the planned closure, which would force cultural association operators and seniors in the neighbourhood to find another way to communicate.
"Especially in these days and age, the elders are getting older," said Wong. "If they start moving out, then it's just another inconvenience to everyone in the community."
Activist group Save Chinatown YVR launched the online petition, calling on Canada Post not to stamp out the Chinatown post office.
The petition says the post office serves low-income people, seniors, migrants and people with disabilities who rely on the mail for government documents and income assistance cheques.
But two New Democrats from the NDP’s seven-member caucus — which could play a critical role in helping or blocking the budget’s passage — suggested Wednesday they would be hard-pressed to support the document, even as interim leader Don Davies told the Star his party needs more time to make a decision. Others in his caucus played coy about their plans to decide the future of the Carney government.
Speaking to the Star before the NDP caucus meeting Wednesday, Winnipeg’s Leah Gazan and Vancouver’s Jenny Kwan said they have ruled out abstaining, but did not commit to voting against the budget.
“We’re elected here to make a point, to take a position,” Kwan said. “I’ve always done that in all my entire political life and I will represent my constituents.”
Click link to read the news story - https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/mark-carneys-liberals-welcome-mp-who-crossed-the-floor-as-the-hunt-for-budget-support/article_481bea0e-cee0-41fb-8b3d-e22aea01a68d.html
On Tuesday the federal government announced a dramatic cut in the number of temporary residents – halving admissions of international students to Canada in the next three years, while stabilizing the number of permanent residents.
Ms. Diab was unavailable for comment. Unusually, the annual levels plan was unveiled in the budget and is being spearheaded by Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, rather than the Immigration Minister.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the government’s plan “represents a disappointing retreat from Canada’s historical role as a welcoming, progressive and inclusive country for immigrants, refugees, international students and temporary foreign workers.”
She said the decision to slash international student numbers, coming on top of previous reductions, will “further devastate colleges and universities and the communities that rely on them, while causing job losses across the country.”
The federal Liberals have helped pass an NDP motion that removes proposed restrictions to birthright citizenship from the government’s ‘Lost Canadians’ bill, despite the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois voting in opposition.
On Monday, MPs voted on report stage amendments to Bill C-3 initiated by NDP MP Jenny Kwan that sought to reverse previously adopted changes that would require people eligible for birthright citizenship under the proposed law to fulfill residency and security requirements — similar to prospective immigrants.
The bill now proceeds to third reading, where it is expected to pass, before it moves on to the Senate. If codified, the ‘Lost Canadians’ bill would restore citizenship to people born in a foreign country to Canadian parents who were also born outside Canada.
But Conservative and Bloc MPs passed amendments that would introduce additional criteria for ‘lost Canadians’ to receive citizenship during an immigration committee meeting last month. The amendments would require those eligible to demonstrate, among other things, proficiency in either English or French, as well as a basic knowledge of Canadian history.
Though the Liberals opposed the changes, the amendments passed because the NDP no longer have a seat on committees after failing to keep official party status in this past year’s federal election.
During a recent interview, Kwan told iPolitics that the Tory-proposed changes conflate the rights of immigrants with ‘lost Canadians,’ which she said was “sneaky” and “unCanadian.”
“To me, it is absolutely disgraceful… [so] I’m looking to restore the bill to its original form,” she said.
Kwan’s motion passed by a margin of 170 to 163.
Following the vote, she called the result a “victory for every family who refused to give up, for every Canadian denied their birthright, and for the principle that citizenship belongs to the people — not to politicians.”
OTTAWA — After more than a decade of relentless advocacy, NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the NDP Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, has secured a major breakthrough in the fight for justice for Lost Canadians — families who have been denied their rightful citizenship because of an unjust, discriminatory law. Kwan’s amendments were adopted in the House of Commons — marking a historic win for fairness, equality, and the thousands of families who have fought alongside her for justice.
“This is a victory for every family who refused to give up, for every Canadian denied their birthright, and for the principle that citizenship belongs to the people — not to politicians,” said Kwan.
“For over ten years, thousands of families have been denied their birthright as Canadians because of a cruel and exclusionary policy passed by the Conservatives in 2009,” said Kwan. “That law stripped second-generation Canadians born abroad of the right to pass citizenship to their children. It was wrong then — and it’s wrong now.”
Kwan has stood shoulder to shoulder with Lost Canadians and their allies for over a decade — organizing, pressing governments to act, and negotiating across party lines to fix this injustice. Her fight has always been rooted in one simple belief: no one should lose their birthright to Canadian citizenship because they are global citizens.
An online petition has been launched, to try to keep a post office in the heart of Vancouver's chinatown from closing. As Travis Prasad reports, community supporters say the impending loss of the post office would be a disservice for many of the low income residents in the neighbourhood.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said it’s “unacceptable” that the plan could come after the Nov. 1 deadline.
“Communities, newcomers, and settlement agencies are left in limbo, unsure of what impact of the levels plan will have for Canadians and newcomers. This delay shows a lack of transparency and accountability from a government that claims to value immigration but can’t even meet its own deadlines, defined by law,” Kwan said in an emailed statement.
Bernhard said most people receiving permanent residency are already in Canada, usually on either a work or study permit. He said the system needs certainty in order to attract global talent to the workforce.
Shortly after the new session got underway, it made it back onto the notice paper, courtesy of then-freshly-installed Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab — this time, under a court-imposed deadline of Nov. 20, at which point the existing provisions would be automatically deemed null and void.
It was subsequently adopted on division — which, as Process Nerd readers are undoubtedly aware, takes place without a recorded vote — shortly after the fall sitting got underway, at which point it was sent to committee for further review. It was during the final phase of that process that the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois teamed up to add new provisions that would require anyone attempting to claim citizenship under the new rules to meet the same standards applied to all other immigrants, including a working knowledge of at least one of the two official languages, a basic understanding of Canadian history and security checks.
Shortly after the revised bill was reported back to the House, New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan served notice of a suite of amendments that, as she told iPolitics at the time, would effectively restore it to its original format.
For their part, the Liberals declined to formally endorse Kwan’s proposed changes, put forward two additional amendments, and are widely expected to vote with the New Democrats during the report-stage vote, which could take place as early as tomorrow afternoon.