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Hill Times NEWS: Liberals’ new tone on immigration proves ‘Bloc was right,’ says critic, as NDP calls it a ‘flimsy attempt to cover their political behinds’

NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C), her party’s immigration critic, told The Hill Times the Liberals’ change in tone is a “flimsy attempt to cover their political behinds” after making “a complete mess of Canada’s immigration system.”

“The reality is that successive Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to deliver the housing that Canadians need for over 30 years,” Kwan said. “Instead of owning that problem that they have created, they’ve decided to point their fingers at migrants and international students and to blame them for the housing crisis.”

Kwan said that reducing Canada’s immigration targets will have “dire” unintended consequences, but ones that the Liberals should be able to foresee nonetheless. 

“Canada’s economy will struggle as a result of this, and the ripple effect will be significant,” Kwan said, adding that she believes the Liberals are more focused on ways to “shirk responsibility for their failures” than the economic impacts of the solution.

“Our economy relies on these workers and international students, and we will be faced with a dire situation of not having the workers to fill those positions,” Kwan said, adding that some post-secondary institutions will need to begin downsizing faculty to account for the loss in revenue. 

“Instead of dealing with the real problems, they’ve turned to blame someone else,” Kwan said. 

Globe: Lebanese Canadians face agonizing choice of leaving spouses behind in war-torn Beirut

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the temporary immigration measure was “woefully inadequate” and “continues to neglect Lebanese Canadian family members who are still in grave danger and desperate to get to safety.”

“Canadian citizens and their spouses and children in Lebanon are desperate to get to safety and it’s unconscionable that Canadian family members must consider leaving their spouse or children behind,” she said in an e-mailed statement.

Canadian Press News: Miller to propose more changes to immigration and asylum system

One of the protesters from the group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change told the minister "we are the people you're trying to kick out of this country," as the minister exited the committee room.

The group of around 20 people was escorted from the building by officers of the Parliamentary Protective Service.

In her line of questioning, NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan brought up calls to reverse the recent immigration changes.

 

OPEN LETTER: Special Immigration Measure for Refugee Crisis in Lebanon

Israel’s war on Lebanon has displaced almost one million people. Increasingly, families have no home to return to. Nearly 600,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria. The past few weeks have been the deadliest and the most devastating for Lebanon and people in decades,” said UNHCR Representative in Lebanon, Ivo Freijsen.

The federal government set a standard in the design of the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program. Regardless of the magnitude of the crisis this program has never been repeated for any other Canadian family members in other conflict zone. Former Minister of IRCC Sean Fraser was informed by his immigration officials that CUAET “would set a significant precedent” and “an expectation

that it could be done for other population.” Officials are correct to assume that Canadians expect the government to be fair and equitable in applying Canada's immigration policies.

CBC NEWS: MPs to probe how human smuggler obtained new passport while barred from having one

MP Jenny Kwan, the NDP's immigration critic, said she wanted to examine what blame the court system shouldered in this situation. 

"The court decision related to travel documents did not come from Passport Canada or IRCC (Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada), that actually came from the courts. So there is a real question about the failure of that system," said Kwan. 

CBC NEWS: Canadian MPs join international push for recognition of Palestinian state

NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson said in a news statement on Wednesday that "conditions for a two-state solution are increasingly threatened by illegal settlements and state-sanctioned violence."

"It is urgent that Canada recognize the State of Palestine before it is too late," McPherson said.

The open letter says that recognizing Palestinian statehood would help restart rights-based peace talks and "reinforce the moderate voices on both sides who seek a peaceful and political solution in line with the requirements of international law."

"Currently, neither the Palestinian nor the Israeli people can live their lives in security," the letter reads. "Recognizing the State of Palestine will benefit both Palestinians and Israelis."

TADC Media Release: MP Jenny Kwan tabled petition e-5137 in solidarity with Hong Kong political prisoners and pro-democracy movement

Globe NEWS: More than 10,000 foreign student acceptance letters may be fake, says top immigration official

Enhanced checks by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada have found scores of would-be foreign students who said they had a genuine place to study may have been attaching a fraudulent acceptance letter to their application to get into Canada.

The tighter checks were introduced after a group of international students applying for permanent residence last year faced deportation because an unlicensed immigration consultant in India had submitted fake acceptance letters with their applications for study permits.

Bronwyn May, director-general of the International Students Branch at the Immigration Department, told MPs last week that since IRCC started verifying acceptance letters from colleges and universities in the past year, officials have “intercepted more than 10,000 potentially fraudulent letters of acceptance.”

She said 93 per cent of the 500,000 acceptance letters attached to study permit applications the department checked in the past 10 months had been verified as genuine by a college or university.

But 2 per cent were not authentic, 1 per cent of applicants had had their place cancelled by a college or university, while in other cases, colleges and universities failed to respond to say whether the letters offering applicants a place to study were genuine.

She told the Commons immigration committee that the IRCC was making further inquiries into the source of the fraudulent letters.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said “the revelation that the government recently uncovered 10,000 fake admissions letter is extremely alarming.”

“It’s unconscionable that the Liberals allowed unscrupulous actors to exploit and abuse international students for so long,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “Not only does the government need to identify who those actors are, they need to also identify the institutions that may be collaborating in any fraud schemes.

“It is important to not just protect the integrity of the program, Canada also has a responsibility to ensure that international students in Canada that have been defrauded are protected.”

Ottawa launched a probe into 2,000 suspicious cases involving students from India, China and Vietnam last year. It found that around 1,485 had been issued bogus documents to come to Canada by immigration consultants abroad.

Many were refused entry to Canada after their letters of acceptance from colleges were found to be fake, but others had already arrived.

Since December last year, colleges and universities have been required by IRCC to verify letters of acceptance through an online portal. On Jan. 30 this year, the measure was extended to study permit applications and extensions submitted from within Canada.

Immigration.ca NEWS: Canada Braces for Border Surge Amid Threat of Mass US Deportations Under Trump

Despite Joly’s assurances, immigration advocates and opposition politicians urge Ottawa to develop a proactive humanitarian plan. NDP MP Jenny Kwan called for transparency, saying, “What needs to happen is for them to be open and transparent with Canadians.” Ensuring preparedness at the border and readiness to provide essential services could be critical in mitigating the pressures of a sudden increase in asylum seekers.

Canadian Press NEWS: NDP calls on federal government to allow open work permits for temporary workers

The committee’s report found that system creates conditions that can lead to exploitation and abuse.

NDP MPs Jenny Kwan and Matthew Green say the government needs to take this a step further by allowing all temporary workers access to open work permits in an effort to prevent abuse.

“The reality is, if you’re tied to one specific employer, you are really at their behest to do what they demand of you,” Kwan said.

“No matter what the abuse is, no matter if you’re faced with wage theft, with harassment, with violence, for women, with sexual harassment — you just have to live with it.”

She said the least the federal government can do to curb abuse in the temporary worker system is end the closed work permit system.