Immigrants Should Not be Blamed for the Housing Crisis
MP Jenny Kwan commented on the increasing blame being put on immigrants for the housing crisis at the recently-conducted Meeting No. 78 of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
She said that the housing crisis is a result of successive Liberal and Conservative governments’ failed attempts at establishing a successful housing plan, and not because of immigrants.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who is the critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and who represents the riding of Vancouver East, says she’s heard of dozens of students who are still waiting to for their cases to be reviewed.
“Through the work of the task force, officials confirmed 285 students were impacted by scammers. To date, less than half of the cases have been reviewed leaving many students in limbo. This is unacceptable and the Liberals must act to fix this,” she said on Oct. 27.
While she applauded the federal action, Kwan says this situation likely could have been avoided.
Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for Vancouver East, said the non-liability clause allows the government to have “discriminated without impunity and underscores the sense of colonial entitlement.”
Idlout also raised concerns about the “sexist and…problematic” section 6(2) in the Indian Act, which she said is not addressed in the Bill C-38 amendment.
Under section 6(2), someone who has only one status parent will get status for their lifetime. However, the next generation will not. This is referred to as the “second generation cut-off.” This provides issues especially for women, who can easily be identified as a child’s parent.
FEDERAL NDP Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Jenny Kwan, reacting to changes to the International Student Program announced by Marc Miller, federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, on Friday, said: “At long last, the government is finally doing what they should have been doing all along – work collaboratively with Designated Learning Institutions to verify the authenticity of acceptance letters for international students. If the Liberals acted sooner, it would have prevented the fraud scam by bad actors impacting hundreds of students from India earlier this year.”
She noted: “Through the work of the task force, officials confirmed 285 students were impacted by scammers. To date, less than half of the cases have been reviewed leaving many students in limbo. This is unacceptable and the Liberals must act to fix this.”
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said she’s concerned about the backlash against the immigrant community.
“No good will come out of that because we have already lived through racism and discrimination in Canada’s history,” she said. “The government has to have a housing plan and an infrastructure plan for our community.”
Tom Kmiec, the Conservative immigration critic, did not respond to the Star’s requests for comment. This summer, his party leader, Pierre Poilievre, did say the immigration system is broken, but sidestepped reporters’ questions about whether he would change the current targets.
Palestinians in Canada will not be sent back to Gaza if their visas expire while the war between Israel and Hamas rages, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told a Commons committee on Tuesday.
He was responding to questioning from NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan who asked the minister whether he would extend the visas of Palestinians in Canada so they are not sent back to Gaza during the war once they expire.
“We can do that. We can extend the visas,” Mr. Miller replied in a hearing before the Commons immigration committee.
NDP MPs Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) and Laurel Collins (Victoria) speak with CPAC’s Michael Serapio on the final day of the federal party's policy convention in Hamilton, Ontario. The MPs face questions on challenges facing their party, and what they can learn from their provincial counterparts on organizing and winning elections. 
Housing continues to remain a hot topic in the House of Commons.
In response to a question from the NDP, Housing Minister Sean Fraser admits the GST rebate on new builds is not enough on its own.
"We're going to continue to make investments in low cost financing to build more homes that ordinary people can actually afford. We've advanced programs in the past and will continue to in the future to directly subsidize the kinds of homes low income people need to build."
Meanwhile theNew Democrats are pushing for an acquisition fund for the non-profit sector to stop the loss of low cost housing to profiteering.
Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan notes the failings of previous governments have led to dire straits.
"The average rent in Canada is now over $2100 a month, in Vancouver its over $3000, time for bold action."
The Liberals say there must be an increase of availability in the market and have the government encourage the construction of both low and mid-income housing.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan—yes, the one who is actually being targeted by foreign interference—implored in a petition of her own that a registry be implemented as soon as possible. She stated that comparing a Foreign Agent Registry to the racist Chinese Exclusion Act is a false comparison. The historic racist law targeted all Chinese people, a Foreign Agent Registry would apply to anyone, Canadian or not, who lobby on behalf of any foreign government.
I don’t think this is a race issue.
Parliament recommenced this past week—let’s see what is done to deal with this critical issue.
Knowledge is power, and we know that foreign interference is happening right here in Canada. Unlike Lennie, we need to disarm the threat we face before serious damage is inflicted on our democracy. 