Immigration

Globe: NDP Calls For Canada to Bring Extended Family of Canadians Safety Out of Gaza

Canadians whose relatives are struggling to survive in the Gaza Strip are losing faith the federal government will step in to save the lives of their loved ones, and are joining an NDP call for Canada to help get their extended family members out of the embattled territory.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan asked the minister Monday to formalize the process of getting extended family members out of the embattled territory.
“I assume that the government is doing something on a one-off basis and perhaps that’s why some people managed to get to safety. But that’s not good enough, it is not the right approach,” Kwan said at a news conference Monday.

Canadian Press: Calls grow to get Canadian extended families out of Gaza

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan asked the minister Monday to formalize the process of getting extended family members out of the embattled territory.

“I assume that the government is doing something on a one-off basis and perhaps that’s why some people managed to get to safety. But that’s not good enough, it is not the right approach,” Kwan said at a press conference Monday.

In an open letter signed by the entire NDP caucus, Kwan urged the government to facilitate the evacuation and reunification of extended family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents from Gaza.

“The situation in Gaza is getting so desperate that literally, as we speak, people’s lives are being lost,” she told reporters at a press conference outside the House of Commons.

CTV: 'Time is of the essence': Canadian government urged to introduce special immigration measures to help those with families in Gaza

The NDP made the announcement Monday during a press conference and in an open letter to the federal immigration and foreign affairs ministers. The party is calling for special immigration measures that would facilitate the evacuation of extended family members of Canadians and permanent residents in Gaza.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the Canadian government needs to create special rules for Palestinians as they did for Syrian, Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.
According to Global Affairs, about 600 people have been able to leave the war-torn territory through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Those who left are Canadians, Canadian permanent residents and people who meet Ottawa's strict definition of an eligible family member, with exceptions. Eligible family members are spouses, partners or dependent children. Parents, siblings, or adult children over the age of 22 are excluded from this definition.

Global News: Israel-Gaza: NDP calls for special immigration measures to reunite Palestinian families in Canada

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, NDP MP Jenny Kwan described Gaza as “the most dangerous place for children in the world” and called for special immigration measures so that Palestinian families in Canada could be reunited with their loved ones. Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly responded by saying that “too many” children and women have lost their lives, adding that 130 Canadians were able to cross the Rafah border on Sunday night.

Globe: Israel-Gaza: NDP calls for special immigration measures to reunite Palestinian families in Canada

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, NDP MP Jenny Kwan described Gaza as “the most dangerous place for children in the world” and called for special immigration measures so that Palestinian families in Canada could be reunited with their loved ones. Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly responded by saying that “too many” children and women have lost their lives, adding that 130 Canadians were able to cross the Rafah border on Sunday night.

CIMM#85: Application Backlogs and Processing Times and Closed Work Permits and Temporary Foreign Workers

I appreciate Mr. Possberg's comments about the concern over violations of labour codes, whether it's a domestic worker or a temporary foreign worker. I guess the operative difference, though, between those two categories of workers, is that temporary foreign workers do not have full status. People who are here—Canadians or people with permanent resident status—have status and, therefore, protection.

In the case of temporary foreign workers, the biggest problem, of course, is this: Because they don't have full status, they have very few options. When they are subjected to mistreatment or abuse by the employer, what happens to them? They have dilemmas. They have difficult decisions to make. If they report this situation, they stand to lose their job. If they lose their job, they run into a whole host of other problems. These include not having financial resources, not only to support themselves but also to send home to their families.

We also have situations where a lot of workers may not have access to information about where to go to make their reports. There have been surveys done. The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, for example, has done a lot of work with migrant workers. When they survey migrant workers, how many of them have actually received information about their rights? The vast majority of them say they haven't. Then, when you ask further questions about how many of them received information about their rights in the language they speak, that number reduces even more. You can anticipate the difficulties with all of that.

The Inertia: Canadian Official Calls for Erin Brooks To Be Granted Citizenship

Erin Brooks was once Canada’s greatest hope for Olympic surfing gold. Then it was discovered that she was not legally a Canadian and shortly afterwards her application for citizenship was officially rejected. Now, a member of the Canadian government has taken up the ongoing fight to get Brooks citizenship in time to qualify for Paris.

Jenny Kwan, a Member of Parliament affiliated with the New Democratic Party, called on Marc Miller, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, to step in and grant Brooks citizenship. Furthermore, Kwan accused the Conservative opposition in Ottawa of stalling Bill S-245, an amendment to the Citizenship Act that would allow second-generation people born abroad to be granted Citizenship, as the Vancouver Sun reports.

CBC: MP Jenny Kwan tells feds to help Erin Brooks surf for Canada at Paris Olympics

A full-court press is underway to get Erin Brooks on a surfboard for Canada at the upcoming world championships and Olympic Games.

Member of Parliament Jenny Kwan, the NDP critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, asked Minister Marc Miller on Thursday to grant Brooks citizenship because an amendment to the Citizenship Act has stalled in Ottawa.

"I'm asking the Minister of Immigration to grant Erin's citizenship under special grant, citing undue hardship," Kwan said Thursday at a press conference in Vancouver.

The 16-year-old Brooks earned a silver medal at this year's world championship and claimed a 2022 world junior title competing for Canada under an International Surfing Association citizenship waiver.

She also won a World Surf League Challenger Series event Oct. 21 in Saquarema, Brazil.

"Erin is a prodigy," Surf Canada executive director Dom Domic said.

Canada's recent denial of Brooks' citizenship application threw a spanner in her career.

Kwan accused the Conservative opposition in Ottawa of stalling an amendment to the Citizenship Act, Bill S-245, that restores citizenship rights for second-generation people born abroad.

Bill C-37 in 2009 ended those rights and Kwan says Brooks is emblematic of those experiencing the fallout.

Bill S-245 won't return to the House of Commons for third reading before mid-December, Kwan said.

"As the Canadian law stands right now, people who are second generation born abroad, do not have Canadian citizenship conferred to them from their Canadian parents. This was not always the case," Kwan said.

Globe: Liberals, NDP urge Conservatives not to stall citizenship rights for ‘lost Canadians’

Bill S-245 would change the law so if a Canadian parent could demonstrate a “substantial connection” to Canada, their child would again qualify for a passport.

It would also reinstate citizenship for a group of people born between 1977 and 1981, classified as “second generation born abroad,” who failed to reaffirm their citizenship by the age of 28.

The bill has passed through the Senate and most of its Commons stages, including in committee.

“We support the bill and encourage all parties to do so as well,” said Bahoz Dara Aziz, spokesperson for Immigration Minister Marc Miller.

But the NDP’s immigration critic Jenny Kwan accused the Conservatives of stalling its progress and “playing petty political games,” including filibustering debate at committee, to reduce its chances of becoming law.

She accused the sponsor of the Senate bill in the Commons, Conservative MP Jasraj Singh Hallan, of slowing the bill’s passage in the House by twice switching its scheduled third reading debate with another bill. Mr. Hallan and Tom Kmiec, the Conservative immigration critic, would not comment.

“Canada needs to fix the lost Canadians issue once and for all. The Conservatives were wrong to strip the right of parents to pass on their Canadian citizenship to their second-generation-born-abroad children 14 years ago,” she said. “In the case of William and Jack Cowling, it means they do not have the legal status to work in Canada and the family farm that has been in their family for six generations is now in jeopardy.”

Immigration.ca: Marc Miller Says that the Canada Closed Work Permit is Set for Reform

The committee meeting saw NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan saying that action was long overdue and workers under this permit often failed to speak up owing to fears of losing their jobs and being deported.

When questioned by her on whether temporary workers should be given a direct path to permanent residence, Miller said that his government was considering such a route for construction workers. However, he does not believe that all temporary workers should have an automatic route to citizenship, and neither does he believe in abolishing the closed work permit.