Refugee/Migrant Crisis
- Thread starter Tecumsehsbones
- Start date
Where are they all gonna live?The Trudeau Liberals are planning to remove nearly all grounds the Immigration department uses to exclude applicants, the Toronto Sun has learned.
It has been the Trudeau government’s goal since 2020 to increase Canada’s intake of immigrants and refugees by nearly one-third to 400,000 annually.
How they plan to achieve this elevated level is outlined in an internal draft document sent to immigration and refugee judges — documents that have been exclusively shared with the Sun.
In an email sent to staff and adjudicators on Sept. 20, Richard Wex, the Liberals’ appointee as chairperson and chief executive officer of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, laid out a massive expansion of the reasons immigrants can be allowed to enter and stay in Canada.
Under the new guidelines, contained in a document marked “Draft” and covered by solicitor-client privilege, civil service officers who do an initial screening of immigration and refugee claims, plus the immigration and refugee judges who hear appeals of the officers’ decisions, are instructed to accept any applicant who has an “intersectional” claim.
Intersectionality is defined as two or more of “race, religion, indigeneity, political beliefs, socioeconomic status, age, sexual orientation, culture, disability, or immigration status,” that “impact an individual’s lived experience of discrimination, marginalization or oppression.”
No longer will claimants need to prove, for instance, that they face torture or death if forced to return to their home countries. Nor will they have to satisfy the UN’s definition of a “refugee.”
GUNTER: Liberals to make immigration to Canada much easier — Toronto Sun
The Trudeau Liberals are planning to remove nearly all grounds the Immigration department uses to exclude applicants, the Toronto Sun has learned. It has been the Trudeau government’s goal since 2020 to increase Canada’s intake of immigrants and refugees by nearly one-third to 400,000 annually...apple.news
“This is a long article, and the guts of it are still at the link above…this is the story the Liberal Gov’t is trying to have Twitter & Facebook (and the Sun) remove links to.”
These new rules render examining refugees’ claims pointless.
Adjudicators, essentially, must now say yes to everyone who makes it to Canadian soil and claims (not proves, merely claims) they are a victim of two more of a broad range of abuses — some invisible and mild.
Already, 22 of just over 300 adjudicators already admit 100% of the claimants appearing before them. (The median acceptance rate across the country is about 70%.)
Accepting 100% of claims is an impossibly high rate, unless these 22 judges are deliberately looking to admit anyone and everyone. Most of the 22 are Liberal appointees. Now it would appear they are to be the models for all the other adjudicators.
How long do you think it will take for word to get out around the world that Canada, which is already one of the countries most open to immigration, is removing all barriers and throwing the doors open wide?
Albanian fugitive in Montreal gets bail in extradition case
Ëngjëll Brahimi was convicted in absentia of killing a police officer and his son
Author of the article
aul Cherry • Montreal Gazette
Published May 18, 2023 • 2 minute read
A man who is alleged to have been living in Montreal for years under a fake identity to avoid being jailed in Albania, where he was convicted in absentia of killing a police officer and his son, was granted bail at the Montreal courthouse Thursday while he challenges an extradition order.
Superior Court Justice François Dadour agreed with a request from lawyers representing Ëngjëll Brahimi, 60, that he be released while the extradition case is pending. Brahimi has been represented by defence lawyers Andrew Barbacki, Jordan Trevick and Sara Malik in the extradition case.
The Albanian government alleges Brahimi killed the police officer, Astrit Brace, and his eight-year-old son, Asllan, in an ambush of gunfire on Aug. 10, 2000.
Dadour imposed a series of conditions Brahimi is required to follow. Besides the standard bail conditions — that he keep the peace, respect a curfew and show up for future court dates — a third party agreed to make a $20,000 deposit to support Brahimi’s request for bail. Brahimi and his wife also agreed to post a $100,000 bond on property they own.
The judge also imposed an unusually stringent condition requiring that Brahimi report to the RCMP every weekday while he is out on bail. Normally, a person granted bail in a criminal case is required to report to a police station once a week or once a month.
The case will return to court on June 26.
In January, the Albanian government requested Brahimi’s extradition while alleging he has been living in Canada under the name Piro Kota for years. Brahimi’s lawyers have conceded that Kota is indeed Brahimi.
“It’s a question of the sufficiency of the evidence that he is the perpetrator (convicted in absentia in Albania)” Barbacki said. “We’re challenging the reliability of the evidence there.”
According to an affidavit filed with the extradition request: “On May 21, 2001, the applicant was found guilty in absentia by an Albanian court of premeditated murder due to vengeance, murder committed in other specific circumstances, attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms. Two of the victims were killed, one of whom was a child. The other was the former chief of criminal investigations in the Albanian district of Fier.”
Brahimi was arrested in Montreal on Jan. 26.
pcherry@postmedia.com
torontosun.com
Ëngjëll Brahimi was convicted in absentia of killing a police officer and his son
Author of the article
aul Cherry • Montreal GazettePublished May 18, 2023 • 2 minute read
A man who is alleged to have been living in Montreal for years under a fake identity to avoid being jailed in Albania, where he was convicted in absentia of killing a police officer and his son, was granted bail at the Montreal courthouse Thursday while he challenges an extradition order.
Superior Court Justice François Dadour agreed with a request from lawyers representing Ëngjëll Brahimi, 60, that he be released while the extradition case is pending. Brahimi has been represented by defence lawyers Andrew Barbacki, Jordan Trevick and Sara Malik in the extradition case.
The Albanian government alleges Brahimi killed the police officer, Astrit Brace, and his eight-year-old son, Asllan, in an ambush of gunfire on Aug. 10, 2000.
Dadour imposed a series of conditions Brahimi is required to follow. Besides the standard bail conditions — that he keep the peace, respect a curfew and show up for future court dates — a third party agreed to make a $20,000 deposit to support Brahimi’s request for bail. Brahimi and his wife also agreed to post a $100,000 bond on property they own.
The judge also imposed an unusually stringent condition requiring that Brahimi report to the RCMP every weekday while he is out on bail. Normally, a person granted bail in a criminal case is required to report to a police station once a week or once a month.
The case will return to court on June 26.
In January, the Albanian government requested Brahimi’s extradition while alleging he has been living in Canada under the name Piro Kota for years. Brahimi’s lawyers have conceded that Kota is indeed Brahimi.
“It’s a question of the sufficiency of the evidence that he is the perpetrator (convicted in absentia in Albania)” Barbacki said. “We’re challenging the reliability of the evidence there.”
According to an affidavit filed with the extradition request: “On May 21, 2001, the applicant was found guilty in absentia by an Albanian court of premeditated murder due to vengeance, murder committed in other specific circumstances, attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms. Two of the victims were killed, one of whom was a child. The other was the former chief of criminal investigations in the Albanian district of Fier.”
Brahimi was arrested in Montreal on Jan. 26.
pcherry@postmedia.com
Albanian fugitive in Montreal gets bail in extradition case
Ëngjëll Brahimi was convicted in absentia of killing a police officer and his son.
Deportation order over bogus college admission letter could set precedent: Lawyers
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Kiernan Green
Published May 20, 2023 • 4 minute read
Karamjeet Kaur, a 25-year-old former international student from India, is facing deportation.
Karamjeet Kaur, a 25-year-old former international student from India, is facing deportation.
An Edmonton woman is facing deportation from Canada this month after a college admission letter that secured her entry into the country five years ago turned out to be fake.
Even though Karamjeet Kaur, 25, proved not to know the letter was fraudulent, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has ruled that she be deported by May 29.
That decision will likely have implications for possibly hundreds of other international students in Canada who reportedly received similar fake admission letters from the same education agent in India — a situation that shows lack of accountability by border and immigration authorities, according to lawyers and activists who spoke with The Canadian Press.
Kaur, whose poor, rural Indian family spent their life savings so she could be the first among them to study and work abroad, now works as a supervisor for a company in Edmonton.She’s married to a Canadian citizen, frequently volunteers, has a work permit valid until November and was on the path to becoming a permanent resident.
Avnish Nanda of Nanda & Company law firm, which has taken on Kaur’s case, said she’s the type of person Canada wants. “She’s contributed so much, and she has the kind of character commitment to this country that we want in young immigrants.”
It wasn’t until 2021, during the last stage of Kaur’s application for permanent residency, that the Canada Border Services Agency informed her the admission letter from Toronto’s Seneca College, which secured her student visa, was fake.
Kaur said that upon her arrival to Canada, the agent in India only told her that her spot at Seneca was no longer available. Kaur eventually went to NorQuest College in Edmonton, where she graduated from a business and administration management program in 2020.
“We thought that the immigration process is very strict, and that they verify everything when they are giving the visa,” Kaur said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “I was really shocked. I’ve already been here five years. Canada is my country now.”
Nanda said immigration officials in both India and Canada believed that Kaur’s college admission letter was legitimate.
The same education agent gave as many as 700 students fraudulent admission letters to Canadian post-secondary schools, according to those trying to help the students who now face removal from Canada. The education agent is now reportedly facing charges in India.
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed in an email to The Canadian Press that “there are a number of active Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) investigations into cases of misrepresentation, including those related to study permits.”
The CBSA did not provide further details, citing ongoing investigations, and said it does not comment on specific cases.
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada said it’s required to hold an admissibility hearing in cases where the CBSA alleges that someone is inadmissible to enter or remain in Canada.
In January 2023, a Federal Court judge dismissed Kaur’s request for a judicial review of the Immigration Board’s deportation order. The judge found Kaur “genuinely believed” she had been accepted to Seneca College, but noted that she never took any action to verify her acceptance and never contacted the university to query why her purported acceptance had been withdrawn.
Kaur’s deportation orderestablished an implied legal precedent for other students awaiting their hearing results, said Nanda. She’s has since applied for permanent residency in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds and through sponsorship.
Kaur and more than a dozen others protested outside Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s constituency office in Toronto on May 3 to demand culpability for their fake letters’ initial acceptance by Canadian immigration officials. An online petition against the deportations of affected students, launched by Migrant Workers Alliance the next day, has since received more than 940 signatures.
“We’re international students. We’re contributing millions of dollars in Canada’s economy⦠we stepped up (as essential workers) in COVID. We’re the victims of fraud. (Canada) has to do a proper investigation,” Lovepreet Singh, a victim of the same admission letter fraud, said at the protest. “If we have to go back, it would be an outrageous injustice for us.”
Jaswant Mangat is representing about 40 students in various stages of their admissibility hearingsbefore the immigration boardand said that his clients’ visa processing was done too hastily, often within a week. “There was no oversight or verification system,” he said.
“If agents know that (Canada’s immigration) system is unable to detect fraud, they’ll continue to commit it,” said Mangat.
In response to claims that incoming students’ permits and visa documents weren’t adequately reviewed, the CBSA said that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is responsible for receiving and reviewing study permit applications. They did not confirm or deny the number of possibly fraudulent acceptance letters flagged in 2018. IRCC did not respond to questions about those claims by publication time.
Nanda said that Mendicino and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser should use the powers of their offices to mandate a process to determine whether all implicated students were unaware of the letter fraud, as Kaur proved in her judicial hearing.
“The government can today address this issue in a way that is compassionate and recognizes our domestic migration targets but also the daily lives of these folks who sacrificed everything to come to this country,” said Nanda.
The Immigration and Refugee Board said it decides each case “on its merits, based on the law and the evidence and arguments presented by the parties.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Kiernan Green
Published May 20, 2023 • 4 minute read
Karamjeet Kaur, a 25-year-old former international student from India, is facing deportation.
Karamjeet Kaur, a 25-year-old former international student from India, is facing deportation.
An Edmonton woman is facing deportation from Canada this month after a college admission letter that secured her entry into the country five years ago turned out to be fake.
Even though Karamjeet Kaur, 25, proved not to know the letter was fraudulent, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has ruled that she be deported by May 29.
That decision will likely have implications for possibly hundreds of other international students in Canada who reportedly received similar fake admission letters from the same education agent in India — a situation that shows lack of accountability by border and immigration authorities, according to lawyers and activists who spoke with The Canadian Press.
Kaur, whose poor, rural Indian family spent their life savings so she could be the first among them to study and work abroad, now works as a supervisor for a company in Edmonton.She’s married to a Canadian citizen, frequently volunteers, has a work permit valid until November and was on the path to becoming a permanent resident.
Avnish Nanda of Nanda & Company law firm, which has taken on Kaur’s case, said she’s the type of person Canada wants. “She’s contributed so much, and she has the kind of character commitment to this country that we want in young immigrants.”
It wasn’t until 2021, during the last stage of Kaur’s application for permanent residency, that the Canada Border Services Agency informed her the admission letter from Toronto’s Seneca College, which secured her student visa, was fake.
Kaur said that upon her arrival to Canada, the agent in India only told her that her spot at Seneca was no longer available. Kaur eventually went to NorQuest College in Edmonton, where she graduated from a business and administration management program in 2020.
“We thought that the immigration process is very strict, and that they verify everything when they are giving the visa,” Kaur said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “I was really shocked. I’ve already been here five years. Canada is my country now.”
Nanda said immigration officials in both India and Canada believed that Kaur’s college admission letter was legitimate.
The same education agent gave as many as 700 students fraudulent admission letters to Canadian post-secondary schools, according to those trying to help the students who now face removal from Canada. The education agent is now reportedly facing charges in India.
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed in an email to The Canadian Press that “there are a number of active Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) investigations into cases of misrepresentation, including those related to study permits.”
The CBSA did not provide further details, citing ongoing investigations, and said it does not comment on specific cases.
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada said it’s required to hold an admissibility hearing in cases where the CBSA alleges that someone is inadmissible to enter or remain in Canada.
In January 2023, a Federal Court judge dismissed Kaur’s request for a judicial review of the Immigration Board’s deportation order. The judge found Kaur “genuinely believed” she had been accepted to Seneca College, but noted that she never took any action to verify her acceptance and never contacted the university to query why her purported acceptance had been withdrawn.
Kaur’s deportation orderestablished an implied legal precedent for other students awaiting their hearing results, said Nanda. She’s has since applied for permanent residency in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds and through sponsorship.
Kaur and more than a dozen others protested outside Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s constituency office in Toronto on May 3 to demand culpability for their fake letters’ initial acceptance by Canadian immigration officials. An online petition against the deportations of affected students, launched by Migrant Workers Alliance the next day, has since received more than 940 signatures.
“We’re international students. We’re contributing millions of dollars in Canada’s economy⦠we stepped up (as essential workers) in COVID. We’re the victims of fraud. (Canada) has to do a proper investigation,” Lovepreet Singh, a victim of the same admission letter fraud, said at the protest. “If we have to go back, it would be an outrageous injustice for us.”
Jaswant Mangat is representing about 40 students in various stages of their admissibility hearingsbefore the immigration boardand said that his clients’ visa processing was done too hastily, often within a week. “There was no oversight or verification system,” he said.
“If agents know that (Canada’s immigration) system is unable to detect fraud, they’ll continue to commit it,” said Mangat.
In response to claims that incoming students’ permits and visa documents weren’t adequately reviewed, the CBSA said that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is responsible for receiving and reviewing study permit applications. They did not confirm or deny the number of possibly fraudulent acceptance letters flagged in 2018. IRCC did not respond to questions about those claims by publication time.
Nanda said that Mendicino and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser should use the powers of their offices to mandate a process to determine whether all implicated students were unaware of the letter fraud, as Kaur proved in her judicial hearing.
“The government can today address this issue in a way that is compassionate and recognizes our domestic migration targets but also the daily lives of these folks who sacrificed everything to come to this country,” said Nanda.
The Immigration and Refugee Board said it decides each case “on its merits, based on the law and the evidence and arguments presented by the parties.”
Deportation order over bogus college admission letter could set precedent: Lawyers
An Edmonton woman is facing deportation from Canada this month after a college admission letter turned out to be fake.
It seems a bit odd they'd be going after this one. Are there no illegal (or legal) immigrants who have committed crimes?
Always thought that any agency involved in immigration should focus its limited resources on deporting these first.
Doesn't her marriage to a Canadian citizen mean that even if they deport her, she can turn around and come right back?
Always thought that any agency involved in immigration should focus its limited resources on deporting these first.
Doesn't her marriage to a Canadian citizen mean that even if they deport her, she can turn around and come right back?
Asylum-seekers stretching Toronto shelters beyond their limit: Deputy mayor
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Kiernan Green
Published May 31, 2023 • 2 minute read
McKelvie says that refugees and asylum applicants seeking shelter in Toronto will be turned toward programs and hotels operated by the federal goverment.
Toronto’s overstretched shelter system cannot cope with the high numbers of refugee claimants seeking bed spaces and will begin referring them away from at-capacity shelters toward federal programs, said Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie.
McKelvie said at a news conference Wednesday that the federal government has not provided Toronto with the funding it needs to cope with unprecedented demand for shelter space from asylum-seekers and refugee claimants.
The number of asylum-seekers in Toronto’s shelter system grew by 500% in the last 20 months, she said, from a low of 530 per night in September 2021 to more than 2,800 throughout May.
McKelvie cited a lack of affordable housing, the volatility of Canada’s economy, low wages and a “resurgence” of refugee claimants to Canada, many of whom would prefer to live in Toronto, she said.
“We’re asking the federal government to provide Toronto with the same financial considerations as other municipalities, such as Peel and Niagara, where it funds and operates refugee- and asylum-seeker-specific hotels,” said McKelvie.
McKelvie told reporters that Toronto asks for federal funding for the city’s shelters on an annual basis.
“That is not sustainable, that is not responsible and it is not a system that allows us to plan for the future growth that (Ottawa) anticipates,” she said.
Ottawa has not provided Toronto with additional shelter funding since March, she said, forcing City Hall to make “difficult decisions.”
McKelvie said Toronto needs $97 million to continue offering dedicated shelter support to asylum-seekers and to contribute to the $414-million budget shortfall across the city’s Shelter, Support and Housing Administration.
Beginning Thursday, if space is not available within the city shelter system, refugee claimants and asylum-seekers will be referred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada programs.
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in an email to The Canadian Press that the federal government’s support for immigrants seeking emergency shelter is the Interim Housing Assistance Program. Bahoz Dara Aziz said the program has thus far provided $700 million to provinces and municipalities, 30% of which ($215.4 million) went to Toronto.
IRCC has leases and contracts with 24 hotels with 4,981 hotel rooms across Canada and contracts with service providers to provide temporary accommodations to asylum claimants, noted the email.
McKelvie said Toronto’s “phased approach” to referring asylum-seekers to the IRCC will first include reviewing new asylum-seekers seeking shelter access for eligibility in IRCC hotels and then a review of asylum-seekers already in Toronto’s shelter system to also determine IRCC program eligibility.
“We have a long history of supporting refugees and connecting them with robust supports,” Councillor Shelley Carroll said at the news conference. “But without the support of the federal government, we cannot adequately help those individuals and families build safer and more prosperous lives anywhere here in Canada.”
The city also announced it will decommission two temporary shelters at the end of August and called on Ontario’s government to create a provincewide homelessness strategy.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Kiernan Green
Published May 31, 2023 • 2 minute read
McKelvie says that refugees and asylum applicants seeking shelter in Toronto will be turned toward programs and hotels operated by the federal goverment.
Toronto’s overstretched shelter system cannot cope with the high numbers of refugee claimants seeking bed spaces and will begin referring them away from at-capacity shelters toward federal programs, said Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie.
McKelvie said at a news conference Wednesday that the federal government has not provided Toronto with the funding it needs to cope with unprecedented demand for shelter space from asylum-seekers and refugee claimants.
The number of asylum-seekers in Toronto’s shelter system grew by 500% in the last 20 months, she said, from a low of 530 per night in September 2021 to more than 2,800 throughout May.
McKelvie cited a lack of affordable housing, the volatility of Canada’s economy, low wages and a “resurgence” of refugee claimants to Canada, many of whom would prefer to live in Toronto, she said.
“We’re asking the federal government to provide Toronto with the same financial considerations as other municipalities, such as Peel and Niagara, where it funds and operates refugee- and asylum-seeker-specific hotels,” said McKelvie.
McKelvie told reporters that Toronto asks for federal funding for the city’s shelters on an annual basis.
“That is not sustainable, that is not responsible and it is not a system that allows us to plan for the future growth that (Ottawa) anticipates,” she said.
Ottawa has not provided Toronto with additional shelter funding since March, she said, forcing City Hall to make “difficult decisions.”
McKelvie said Toronto needs $97 million to continue offering dedicated shelter support to asylum-seekers and to contribute to the $414-million budget shortfall across the city’s Shelter, Support and Housing Administration.
Beginning Thursday, if space is not available within the city shelter system, refugee claimants and asylum-seekers will be referred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada programs.
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in an email to The Canadian Press that the federal government’s support for immigrants seeking emergency shelter is the Interim Housing Assistance Program. Bahoz Dara Aziz said the program has thus far provided $700 million to provinces and municipalities, 30% of which ($215.4 million) went to Toronto.
IRCC has leases and contracts with 24 hotels with 4,981 hotel rooms across Canada and contracts with service providers to provide temporary accommodations to asylum claimants, noted the email.
McKelvie said Toronto’s “phased approach” to referring asylum-seekers to the IRCC will first include reviewing new asylum-seekers seeking shelter access for eligibility in IRCC hotels and then a review of asylum-seekers already in Toronto’s shelter system to also determine IRCC program eligibility.
“We have a long history of supporting refugees and connecting them with robust supports,” Councillor Shelley Carroll said at the news conference. “But without the support of the federal government, we cannot adequately help those individuals and families build safer and more prosperous lives anywhere here in Canada.”
The city also announced it will decommission two temporary shelters at the end of August and called on Ontario’s government to create a provincewide homelessness strategy.
Asylum-seekers stretching Toronto shelters beyond their limit: Deputy mayor
Toronto will begin referring refugee claimants away from at-capacity shelters toward federal programs, said Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie.
Court of Appeal overturns ruling directing Ottawa to help repatriate men in Syria
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published May 31, 2023 • 1 minute read
OTTAWA — The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned a judge’s declaration that four Canadian men being held in Syrian camps are entitled to Ottawa’s help to return home.
In a ruling released today, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal says the federal government is not obligated under the law to repatriate the men.
The ruling sets aside a January decision by Federal Court Justice Henry Brown, who directed Ottawa to request repatriation of the men as soon as reasonably possible and provide them with passports or emergency travel documents.
Brown said the men were also entitled to have a representative of the federal government travel to Syria to help facilitate their release once their captors agree to hand them over.
The Canadians are among the many foreign nationals in Syrian camps and jails run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the strife-torn region from the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The men include Jack Letts, whose parents John Letts and Sally Lane have waged a campaign to pressure Ottawa to come to his aid.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published May 31, 2023 • 1 minute read
OTTAWA — The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned a judge’s declaration that four Canadian men being held in Syrian camps are entitled to Ottawa’s help to return home.
In a ruling released today, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal says the federal government is not obligated under the law to repatriate the men.
The ruling sets aside a January decision by Federal Court Justice Henry Brown, who directed Ottawa to request repatriation of the men as soon as reasonably possible and provide them with passports or emergency travel documents.
Brown said the men were also entitled to have a representative of the federal government travel to Syria to help facilitate their release once their captors agree to hand them over.
The Canadians are among the many foreign nationals in Syrian camps and jails run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the strife-torn region from the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The men include Jack Letts, whose parents John Letts and Sally Lane have waged a campaign to pressure Ottawa to come to his aid.
Court of Appeal overturns ruling directing Ottawa to help repatriate men in Syria
The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling that four Canadians being held in Syria are entitled to Ottawa's help to return home.
"To save a fool from his folly the gods themselves contend in vain."
--Various, this wording Isaac Asimov
--Various, this wording Isaac Asimov
Why are we allowing asylum seekers to stay anyway? They're not eligible.Asylum-seekers stretching Toronto shelters beyond their limit: Deputy mayor
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Kiernan Green
Published May 31, 2023 • 2 minute read
McKelvie says that refugees and asylum applicants seeking shelter in Toronto will be turned toward programs and hotels operated by the federal goverment.
Toronto’s overstretched shelter system cannot cope with the high numbers of refugee claimants seeking bed spaces and will begin referring them away from at-capacity shelters toward federal programs, said Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie.
McKelvie said at a news conference Wednesday that the federal government has not provided Toronto with the funding it needs to cope with unprecedented demand for shelter space from asylum-seekers and refugee claimants.
The number of asylum-seekers in Toronto’s shelter system grew by 500% in the last 20 months, she said, from a low of 530 per night in September 2021 to more than 2,800 throughout May.
McKelvie cited a lack of affordable housing, the volatility of Canada’s economy, low wages and a “resurgence” of refugee claimants to Canada, many of whom would prefer to live in Toronto, she said.
“We’re asking the federal government to provide Toronto with the same financial considerations as other municipalities, such as Peel and Niagara, where it funds and operates refugee- and asylum-seeker-specific hotels,” said McKelvie.
McKelvie told reporters that Toronto asks for federal funding for the city’s shelters on an annual basis.
“That is not sustainable, that is not responsible and it is not a system that allows us to plan for the future growth that (Ottawa) anticipates,” she said.
Ottawa has not provided Toronto with additional shelter funding since March, she said, forcing City Hall to make “difficult decisions.”
McKelvie said Toronto needs $97 million to continue offering dedicated shelter support to asylum-seekers and to contribute to the $414-million budget shortfall across the city’s Shelter, Support and Housing Administration.
Beginning Thursday, if space is not available within the city shelter system, refugee claimants and asylum-seekers will be referred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada programs.
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in an email to The Canadian Press that the federal government’s support for immigrants seeking emergency shelter is the Interim Housing Assistance Program. Bahoz Dara Aziz said the program has thus far provided $700 million to provinces and municipalities, 30% of which ($215.4 million) went to Toronto.
IRCC has leases and contracts with 24 hotels with 4,981 hotel rooms across Canada and contracts with service providers to provide temporary accommodations to asylum claimants, noted the email.
McKelvie said Toronto’s “phased approach” to referring asylum-seekers to the IRCC will first include reviewing new asylum-seekers seeking shelter access for eligibility in IRCC hotels and then a review of asylum-seekers already in Toronto’s shelter system to also determine IRCC program eligibility.
“We have a long history of supporting refugees and connecting them with robust supports,” Councillor Shelley Carroll said at the news conference. “But without the support of the federal government, we cannot adequately help those individuals and families build safer and more prosperous lives anywhere here in Canada.”
The city also announced it will decommission two temporary shelters at the end of August and called on Ontario’s government to create a provincewide homelessness strategy.
Asylum-seekers stretching Toronto shelters beyond their limit: Deputy mayor
Toronto will begin referring refugee claimants away from at-capacity shelters toward federal programs, said Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie.
Actually, they are until/unless it’s proven that they aren’t. Asylum seekers or refugees are separate and distinct from immigrants.
Refugees or asylum seekers “country shopping” through several nations (as opposed to the “first safe nation”) is a different debate again and maybe where the confusion lays.
I don’t pretend to know more than I do, and maybe I understand things incorrectly, but this is the way I understand them.
1) an immigrant chooses the country that they’re going to immigrate to.
2) a refugee or asylum seeker flees to the first safe nation…& then if they wish to move on to another nation, they do so as an immigrant… following the immigration rules.
3) legitimate immigrants, from what I understand, have a big issue with those jumping into line instead of getting into line for immigration. asylum seekers or refugees that jump through several countries to get to their final destination as opposed to the first safe country are butting in line in front of legitimate immigrants.
Ok I thought refugees were different from asylum seekers. I believe they are two different ways of entering the country. Then there's the normal immigration, which makes 3 ways of entering a country. Am I wrong?
I’m getting out of my depth, so I went to Google on your question & I’m learning this myself today:
Similar to a refugee, an asylum seeker is someone who may be in search of protection due to dangers in his or her home country.
While every refugee is INITIALLY an asylum seeker, not every asylum seeker will ultimately be recognized as a refugee.
An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn't yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Very similar…
An Immigrant is one that’s taking the “normal” route of immigrating to another nation.
.
Ya, I thought there were some differences. I would have googled it but I'm out on our deck, chilling out & didn't feel like getting up to go to my laptop. Thx for the info.
Classically, the difference between "refugee" and "asylum seeker" is that refugees are usually members of a class of people fleeing a country with active warfighting. Typically they will be given only a cursory examination before being admitted. The expectation is that when the war is over, they will return to Fuckupistan, unless they make individual application to immigrate.
Asylum seekers are individual: people with a well-grounded fear of political persecution in their home countries. The home country need not be at war, and often isn't. Their claims are usually reviewed individually (though they may be granted a class status, as the U.S. did with Cubans), and whether or not they will ever return is up in the air.
Asylum seekers are governed by local law, refugees by a UN convention.
For obvious propaganda reasons, the term "refugee" has been stretched far beyond its Convention meaning.
Immigrants are just that: people who want to come and stay for their own reasons. How the Americas got White people. Their treatment is strictly a matter of local law.
Deportation for farm worker who touched teen girls at Southwestern Ontario swimming pond
The migrant farm worker will not automatically be banned from ever returning
Author of the article:Susan Gamble • Postmedia News
Published Jun 03, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read
A migrant farm worker found guilty of sexual interference for touching two teen girls at a Southwestern Ontario swimming pond will be deported from Canada, but not automatically banned from ever returning.
Dwayne Omar Henry, 34, of Manchester, Jamaica, described the interaction as “a hug” and decried the fairness of his trial, while the judge noted he’s shown an unwillingness to accept any responsibility for the incident.
“I never know a hug could be so serious,” Henry told Justice Aubrey Hilliard at his recent sentencing hearing. “I feel like I don’t get a fair trial because it is my first time. I deserve a better trial.”
Although he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, the judge found Henry guilty of two counts of sexual interference and conditionally stayed the two charges of sexual assault.
“In evidence,” said the judge, “I found the Crown didn’t make out beyond a reasonable doubt the most aggravating pieces of the sexual assault allegation.
“Mr. Henry was ultimately convicted of the hugging and he was a 31-year-old man and they were the teenagers at the time. It was an objectively sexual act.”
The incident on William Street in Delhi, a Norfolk County town southeast of London, occurred on the evening of May 27, 2021. Friends of Henry were also swimming at the pond and drinking was involved.
Defence lawyer James Battin said the contact between Henry and the young women was “fleeting,” although one of the victims said it was more.
“(It was) a brief touching in a hugging gesture. He may have moved his hand across the buttocks of one of the ladies. Not to make light of sexual assault, but this is at the low end of the scale.”
Battin said the girls stayed where they were after the incident but, when Henry and his two friends returned to the area, the girls began screaming.
Battin suggested Henry be given 90 days in jail, despite the fact the man had already served 270 days when he appeared in court, worth the equivalent of more than a year in pre-trial custody.
The judge felt more time was warranted but said she was required to consider the “collateral consequences” to Henry, such as being banned from ever returning to Canada, where some of his family lives.
“He has not accepted any responsibility,” said the judge, “even today. He feels, perhaps understandably so, that his life has been ruined by one indiscreet act but the interaction has some impact on (the victims). They were young girls.”
Hilliard sentenced Henry to the equivalent of 179 days in jail, careful to not go over the six-month level that would see him automatically banned from returning to the country.
“He’s going to be removed from Canada so I don’t see any value in having him report for counselling.”
Henry was sent back to the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre to await the involvement of the Canada Border Service Agency. He’ll remain on the national sexual offenders registry for 10 years.
SGamble@postmedia.com
torontosun.com
The migrant farm worker will not automatically be banned from ever returning
Author of the article:Susan Gamble • Postmedia News
Published Jun 03, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read
A migrant farm worker found guilty of sexual interference for touching two teen girls at a Southwestern Ontario swimming pond will be deported from Canada, but not automatically banned from ever returning.
Dwayne Omar Henry, 34, of Manchester, Jamaica, described the interaction as “a hug” and decried the fairness of his trial, while the judge noted he’s shown an unwillingness to accept any responsibility for the incident.
“I never know a hug could be so serious,” Henry told Justice Aubrey Hilliard at his recent sentencing hearing. “I feel like I don’t get a fair trial because it is my first time. I deserve a better trial.”
Although he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, the judge found Henry guilty of two counts of sexual interference and conditionally stayed the two charges of sexual assault.
“In evidence,” said the judge, “I found the Crown didn’t make out beyond a reasonable doubt the most aggravating pieces of the sexual assault allegation.
“Mr. Henry was ultimately convicted of the hugging and he was a 31-year-old man and they were the teenagers at the time. It was an objectively sexual act.”
The incident on William Street in Delhi, a Norfolk County town southeast of London, occurred on the evening of May 27, 2021. Friends of Henry were also swimming at the pond and drinking was involved.
Defence lawyer James Battin said the contact between Henry and the young women was “fleeting,” although one of the victims said it was more.
“(It was) a brief touching in a hugging gesture. He may have moved his hand across the buttocks of one of the ladies. Not to make light of sexual assault, but this is at the low end of the scale.”
Battin said the girls stayed where they were after the incident but, when Henry and his two friends returned to the area, the girls began screaming.
Battin suggested Henry be given 90 days in jail, despite the fact the man had already served 270 days when he appeared in court, worth the equivalent of more than a year in pre-trial custody.
The judge felt more time was warranted but said she was required to consider the “collateral consequences” to Henry, such as being banned from ever returning to Canada, where some of his family lives.
“He has not accepted any responsibility,” said the judge, “even today. He feels, perhaps understandably so, that his life has been ruined by one indiscreet act but the interaction has some impact on (the victims). They were young girls.”
Hilliard sentenced Henry to the equivalent of 179 days in jail, careful to not go over the six-month level that would see him automatically banned from returning to the country.
“He’s going to be removed from Canada so I don’t see any value in having him report for counselling.”
Henry was sent back to the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre to await the involvement of the Canada Border Service Agency. He’ll remain on the national sexual offenders registry for 10 years.
SGamble@postmedia.com
Deportation for farm worker who touched teen girls at swimming pond
Migrant farm worker who hugged teens in a sexual manner guilty of sexual interference
Supporters of Hassan Diab urge Canada to reject France's latest extradition request
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Jim Bronskill
Published Jun 08, 2023 • 2 minute read
OTTAWA — The federal government’s representative in the Senate says France has requested the extradition of Ottawa sociology professor Hassan Diab — a demand his supporters are telling the prime minister to refuse.
In a new letter to Justin Trudeau, over 130 members of the Canadian legal community say extradition must not be used as “an instrument of persecution and scapegoating.”
Diab, who has always claimed innocence, was tried in absentia in Paris for a 1980 attack on a synagogue that killed four and wounded 46.
A French court sentenced Diab to life in prison on April 21 and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The letter to Trudeau notes Sen. Marc Gold, the government’s representative in the upper chamber, subsequently told fellow senators that an extradition request from France had been received and was “being examined.”
In an April 27 response to a question in the Senate about the case, Gold said in little-noticed remarks that the Canadian government would communicate its decision on France’s request publicly as soon as it has been made.
Under the first step in the Canadian extradition process, Justice Department officials decide whether or not to issue what is known as an “authority to proceed” to the next step.
If the case goes ahead, a court then decides whether there is sufficient evidence, or other applicable grounds, to justify a person’s committal for extradition.
When someone is committed to be extradited, the justice minister must then personally decide whether to order the individual’s surrender to the foreign state.
The letter to Trudeau says Diab was convicted despite evidence that strongly shows his innocence.
It is signed by Dalhousie University law professor Rob Currie and Alex Neve, former secretary of Amnesty International Canada, as well as scores of other law professors, retired judges, practising and retired lawyers, and legal researchers from across Canada.
“There is great political pressure in France for someone, apparently anyone, to be convicted for this terrible crime,” the letter says, adding that “it appears a conviction was inevitable, despite the lack of an actual case. In the view of the undersigned, this cannot stand.”
Diab, 69, was previously sent to France in an earlier phase of the proceedings, which the letter calls a “nightmarish ordeal.”
The case stretches back to November 2008, when the RCMP arrested Diab in response to a request from France.
Following lengthy proceedings that wound their way to the Supreme Court of Canada, Diab was extradited to France where he spent three years behind bars, including time in solitary confinement.
French judges dismissed the allegations against him in January 2018 and ordered his immediate release, allowing him to return to Ottawa where he lives with his wife and children.
In May 2021, a French court upheld a decision directing Diab to stand trial, a ruling his Canadian lawyer Donald Bayne called inexplicable.
Diab’s supporters have long argued he was in Beirut writing university exams — not Paris — when the attack took place. They say fingerprint, palm print and handwriting evidence clears Diab of the crime.
They maintain the case against him included secret, unsourced intelligence that may be the product of torture.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Jim Bronskill
Published Jun 08, 2023 • 2 minute read
OTTAWA — The federal government’s representative in the Senate says France has requested the extradition of Ottawa sociology professor Hassan Diab — a demand his supporters are telling the prime minister to refuse.
In a new letter to Justin Trudeau, over 130 members of the Canadian legal community say extradition must not be used as “an instrument of persecution and scapegoating.”
Diab, who has always claimed innocence, was tried in absentia in Paris for a 1980 attack on a synagogue that killed four and wounded 46.
A French court sentenced Diab to life in prison on April 21 and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The letter to Trudeau notes Sen. Marc Gold, the government’s representative in the upper chamber, subsequently told fellow senators that an extradition request from France had been received and was “being examined.”
In an April 27 response to a question in the Senate about the case, Gold said in little-noticed remarks that the Canadian government would communicate its decision on France’s request publicly as soon as it has been made.
Under the first step in the Canadian extradition process, Justice Department officials decide whether or not to issue what is known as an “authority to proceed” to the next step.
If the case goes ahead, a court then decides whether there is sufficient evidence, or other applicable grounds, to justify a person’s committal for extradition.
When someone is committed to be extradited, the justice minister must then personally decide whether to order the individual’s surrender to the foreign state.
The letter to Trudeau says Diab was convicted despite evidence that strongly shows his innocence.
It is signed by Dalhousie University law professor Rob Currie and Alex Neve, former secretary of Amnesty International Canada, as well as scores of other law professors, retired judges, practising and retired lawyers, and legal researchers from across Canada.
“There is great political pressure in France for someone, apparently anyone, to be convicted for this terrible crime,” the letter says, adding that “it appears a conviction was inevitable, despite the lack of an actual case. In the view of the undersigned, this cannot stand.”
Diab, 69, was previously sent to France in an earlier phase of the proceedings, which the letter calls a “nightmarish ordeal.”
The case stretches back to November 2008, when the RCMP arrested Diab in response to a request from France.
Following lengthy proceedings that wound their way to the Supreme Court of Canada, Diab was extradited to France where he spent three years behind bars, including time in solitary confinement.
French judges dismissed the allegations against him in January 2018 and ordered his immediate release, allowing him to return to Ottawa where he lives with his wife and children.
In May 2021, a French court upheld a decision directing Diab to stand trial, a ruling his Canadian lawyer Donald Bayne called inexplicable.
Diab’s supporters have long argued he was in Beirut writing university exams — not Paris — when the attack took place. They say fingerprint, palm print and handwriting evidence clears Diab of the crime.
They maintain the case against him included secret, unsourced intelligence that may be the product of torture.
Supporters of Hassan Diab urge Canada to reject France's latest extradition request
The federal government's representative in the Senate says France has requested the extradition of Ottawa sociology professor Hassan Diab.