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IN THE NEWS: CBC - For many young Hong Kong graduates, Canada’s new routes to immigration have turned into a dead end

The crackdown has seen dozens of former lawmakers and pro-democracy activists arrested.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan is part of the parliamentary committee that published a report this month on pathways to Canadian permanent residency for Hong Kong residents. She argues that the Liberal government should eliminate all education and work experience limitations on people who wish to come to Canada before Hong Kong's exit ban takes effect. 
"If the government doesn't take further action to support the people of Hong Kong, I fear that it would be too late," she said.  "Unfortunately, the humanitarian component is not part of the package — the government is only thinking about what economic benefit can we get from the people of Hong Kong."

IN THE NEWS: Georgia Straight - Jenny Kwan: Clearly, the Liberals’ current approach to housing is failing Canadians

“As Canadians struggle with the affordability of the housing market, a developer in Toronto is set to buy $1 billion worth of single-family houses for rentals. This will inevitably drive up the rental costs and the prospective of homeownership will only become more remote—especially for first time buyers.

“The right to housing must be more than just words. The government must take immediate and aggressive action to ensure housing remains affordable for Canadians. This should include the creation of 500,000 social housing units, putting in place a housing acquisition fund for non-profits and controls on real estate investment trusts who acquire existing affordable units and erode the rental market with renovictions.
“The government also needs to crack down on foreign speculators and money laundering. The parliamentary secretary for housing admitted that we have 'a very safe market for foreign investment' but ‘not a great market for Canadians looking for choices around housing’. The government’s solution is an ineffective one percent tax on foreign investors which is far too weak to have any meaningful impact.

IN THE NEWS: CBC - Ottawa mom fed up with immigration delay to children stuck in Gaza

Qunoo has received support from MP Jenny Kwan, the NDP critic for IRCC, who has sent a letter to the minister urging Qunoo's temporary resident permit application be granted immediately.

"It is simply unacceptable that there is no process in place to allow a parent to not be separated from children while going through the asylum process," wrote Kwan.

Kwan is also advocating for a six-month limit on applications that involve children, instead of the current delay she now estimates at 39 months for permanent resident status applications of family members of refugee applicants.

IN THE NEWS: OMNI TV - Celebrating Asian Heritage with NDP MP Jenny Kwan

To celebrate Asian Heritage Month, OMNI Television sat down with some Canadian politicians of Asian descent to hear about their career path in politics, their thoughts on how to get more Asian voices into parliament and what Asian Heritage Month means to them. 
In our second installment, we hear from Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant

CBC: 'The fault of Canada': Trudeau addresses Commons on discovery of remains at B.C. residential school

Several NDP MPs pressed that point. Jenny Kwan, MP for Vancouver East, urged Pam Damoff, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of indigenous services, to adopt the word "genocide" in reference to residential schools.

"In order to move forward on closure and to honour the children and the lives that's been lost, we must also accept and acknowledge and admit that this was genocide," Kwan said. "Will the member call this a genocide and not a cultural genocide but genocide as defined by the UN convention on genocide?”

IN THE NEWS: CBC - ‘The fault of Canada: Trudeau addresses Commons on discovery of remains at B.C. residential school

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he and many Canadians reacted with "horror at what had happened to these children."
"We as a nation saw people around the country continue to hold memorials to reflect on this horror, to reflect on what this means," Singh said.  "What it means very clearly is these residential schools were not schools; they were institutions designed to eradicate and eliminate Indigenous people. They were institutions that were designed to perpetuate a genocide."
Several NDP MPs pressed that point. Jenny Kwan, MP for Vancouver East, urged Pam Damoff, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of indigenous services, to adopt the word "genocide" in reference to residential schools.
"In order to move forward on closure and to honour the children and the lives that's been lost, we must also accept and acknowledge and admit that this was genocide," Kwan said. "Will the member call this a genocide and not a cultural genocide but genocide as defined by the UN convention on genocide?"

IN THE NEWS: CBC - Advocacy groups warn Covid-19 travel ban has left refugees in limbo

The Canadian Council for Refugees called on the government months ago to introduce exemptions to the travel measures for people being resettled as refugees and entering to make a refugee protection claim.  Janet Dench, the organization’s executive director, said refugee travel is essential, saying that those awaiting resettlement live in precarious circumstances and that the pandemic has only added to their vulnerability.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said processing delays were significant before the pandemic and “things have just gone from bad to worse.”
Ms. Kwan said the lag can be particularly burdensome for refugee families who left family members behind and made applications to reunite. “I am regularly in discussion with people who made an application, been waiting a year, two years or more with having their application processed,” she said.

IN THE NEWS: Rabble - Corporate landlords favoured by government are making housing unaffordable

NDP MP Jenny Kwan drew Tremblay’s attention to the spike, starting about six years ago, in REITs acquiring properties with moderate rent. “What safeguards are there in place,” she asked, “to prevent REITs from jacking up the prices in the properties that they have acquired?”
Tremblay then added: “The private sector is the largest provider of rental housing, including housing that is affordable, in this country.”
When Kwan gave Leilani Farha a chance to respond, she reiterated that “the business model of REITs requires an escalation of rents.”
Farha explained her concern in more detail: “Real estate investment trusts rely on investors. They’re often institutional investors like pension funds, insurance companies and that kind of thing. If you’re an investor, you want to know that you’re going to get a good return on your investment. The way the REIT guarantees a good return on your investment is they show how they’re going to generate income through rent.”
REIT managers need to show investors how they are going to make those rents go up and up.  Since many provinces set guidelines for rent increases on existing tenants, one strategy for REITs is to push tenants out and bring in new ones.

IN THE NEWS: National Observer - Canada needs energy advisers to bolster its home retrofit plans

The program is retroactive to Dec. 1, 2020, so homeowners who complete an evaluation before starting renovations can qualify for the grant.
The Liberal government's latest announcement was met with mixed reactions. NDP MP Jenny Kwan said the energy adviser program was too little, too late. “They of course, are… way behind on action that's necessary to address the climate emergency,” she said.
Recruiting more energy advisers and federal loans and grants for homeowners are a good start, said Brendan Haley, policy director of Efficiency Canada, but retrofit programs will need to ramp up in coming years to have the desired impact.

IN THE NEWS: Georgia Straight - MP Jenny Kwan pays homage to the lifetime contributions of artist Johnson Su-Sing Chow

“Professor Chow was a kind, compassionate elder and educator whose depth of knowledge and learning is truly immense," Vancouver MP Jenny Kwan said in a statement. "He moved to Vancouver when he was 58 years old and fostered the robust development of Vancouver’s Chinese-Canadian artist community through his work in education, writing, and community organizing leading to the establishment of the Chinese Canadian Artists Federation.
"Professor Chow’s paintings and drawing, particularly his beautiful Chinese ink paintings of North American scenery, have deeply enriched Canada’s art and cultural landscape.”