A Proud Moment

Despite my frequent criticisms of the Trudeau government, this move by the Prime Minister makes me proud to be a Canadian:

Let's Not Feel Smug

After almost 10 years' dalliance with darkness, Canadians certainly have no reason to feel smug. That we survived with our core values intact, something I was far from certain would be the case should, however, be a source of pride. A story in today's Star makes the case quite nicely, I think.

Contrasting Canada and France's welcome and integration of Muslims is instructive:

Canada ranks among the best countries in the world for integration, according to the 2015 Migrant Integration Policy Index, a study of 38 developed countries. Canada scored highly — No. 6 — for its open job market, pathway to citizenship, investment in language training, settlement services, cultural diversity and training programs. The government has pilot programs in specialized language training, helping newcomers strengthen language skills in occupational areas so they can get jobs that reflect their qualifications.

Jeffrey Reitz, a University of Toronto sociologist, found that while employment rates for recently arrived Muslim women in Canada are low at first, and they are less likely to work outside the home, they catch up over time.

“Group differences fade for those with more than 10 years in Canada, and completely disappear for their children born here,” he noted. “This is not the case in France.”

The same cannot be said for France, a fact that some suggest is one of the causes of the country's homegrown jihadism.

In contrast, even French-born Muslim women in France are 13 per cent less likely to find work than the mainstream population, said Reitz. He attributes the discrepancy, in part, to the French ban on wearing head scarves in public. “The ban is punitive and ends up pushing more people into poverty,” he says.

The November terror attacks in France highlight again how vital it is for host societies to ensure newcomers and their families can succeed.

Success, in turn, may be the perfect antidote to second-generation Islamic radicalization.

A country must always guard against hubris, often a pathway to the kind of jingoistic imperialism that so hobbles countries like the United States. A modest national pride, however, is a totally different matter, and one we should all embrace.

Today's Score: Harper Base 1, True Canadians 0

My previous post reflected on the Faustian nature of Chris Alexander's rise to prominence within the Harper regime. Further evidence of his moral departure from true Canadian values is reflected in this breaking news, which suggests that Canada is preparing to admit Syrian refugees, but only if they fit certain criteria, the biggest one being that they be religious minorities, i.e., Christians, but not Muslims.

Score another one for the Harper base:



Perhaps John Cleese best reflects my sentiments over this disgraceful pending policy:

Citizenship For Sale

Are there things that money shouldn't be able to buy? In an age when the 'wisdom of the market' is an orthodoxy embraced by many, it is a question that the neoconservative agenda would suggest borders on heresy.

Yet that is precisely the question economist Michael J. Sandel poses in his compelling and thought-provoking book, What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, which I recently read. Written in very accessible language, it's thesis is that while market principles can work very well in many areas of our society, the increasing reach of those principles into regions once deemed off-limits has an unfortunate side effect of promoting either unfairness or debasement of a value/principle that he characterizes as corruption. In many cases, it has both effects.

One quick example before I come to my purpose for writing today. If a person in India sells one of his kidneys to a person able to pay (likely someone in the first world), market principles would say that because both parties benefit, the deal is a good and efficient one. The donor chooses to sell an organ for money he would not otherwise have, and the recipient gets a new lease on life.

However, closer examination of the transaction reveals something very troubling. The deal is not between two equals. The donor is poor and thus unfairly placed in the position of selling due to his need for the money. The one willing and able to pay for the kidney is therefore exploiting that need, so there is, whether openly acknowledged or not, an element of coercion involved in the transaction.

The second element that makes this disquieting is the fact that it debases people by reducing them to mere commodities, in this case a source of organs.

Sandel provides a wealth of examples in his book, ranging from naming rights, to education, to the arts, to sports, queue-jumping, death insurance, etc.

In all of this, Canada's hands are not clean. Citizenship, once thought to be the reward at the end of a long process, is for sale:

The Canadian government is poised to relaunch a program that grants permanent residency to foreign millionaires but a veteran immigration lawyer says he fears Ottawa is still underpricing what amounts to a path to citizenship.

Ottawa announced in February it would end the decades-old Immigrant Investor Program, saying the $800,000 investment required of newcomers, as well as other conditions, “significantly undervalued Canadian permanent residence.”

The language of the article suggests that the commodification, unfairness and debasement of which Sandel writes is rife in the government's approach:

Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based lawyer with decades of experience in the field, said he expects an announcement from Immigration Minister Chris Alexander within two weeks and predicts the minimum investment required under the revamped program will be about $1.5-million.

He suggests Canada aim much higher, starting at the $2-million level. From there, he recommends Ottawa experiment with trying to raise the required cash outlay to even greater heights.

“One-and-a-half million dollars? What is that? A condo and a half in Shanghai?” Mr. Kurland said. “Ratchet it up to $2.5-million to $3-million for investment and wait to see if over a five-month period, six-month period, there are still some empty spaces on the board.”

Sadly, this mentality is not confined to Conservatives:

Former immigration minister Sergio Marchi said he thinks Canada should set the required investment at $1.5-million, and not higher, to remain competitive with the roughly 20 other countries that offer similar programs in exchange for permanent residency or citizenship.

Citizenship as competition, eh? Doesn't sound very Canadian to me.

And while a high price tag is being affixed to becoming Canadian, it would seem that its value is going down.

Victory for Lucene Charles!

Lucene Charles, the St. Vincent native who has been battling deportation from Canada for some time now because of her failure to fill out the proper immigration papers years ago, has finally achieved victory.

The decision in principle to allow her to stay has been made, a decision that will be finalized after the proper criminal and medical checks have been completed. A woman who is a valued and contributing member of the Hamilton community, Charles has worked for many years at St Joseph's Hospital.

The fact that Canadian immigration officials have come to the right decision is a victory for everyone, considering the publicity surrounding her case, and the flurry of social activism and petitions that ensued, were very likely major influences in this decision.

It would seem that even the Harper regime is not totally immune to the public will.

The Latest on Lucene Charles

While I have written about her a couple of time in the past, the ordeal of Lucene Charles is not yet over.

Because she failed to complete the paperwork to achieve permanent residency status when she married a Canadian 15 years ago, the St. Vincent native, the mother of four children, three of whom were born in Canada, still faces deportation.

Charles is the kind of person we would hope to have in the neighborhood, a productive person who works for the betterment of her community. Employed full time as an assistant to an administrator at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, she was recently honoured as a YWCA Woman of Distinction in May for her extensive volunteer work.

Despite the fact that she would be an obvious asset to Canada, because of an oversight in paperwork, she faces being sent back to St. Vincent, an impoverished Caribbean island where three of her children, born in Canada, will go to for the first time if she cannot find adequate placement for them.

You can read the complete story here, and I will only offer the following observation:

I have come to the point in my life where I strongly believe that so many of the so-called rules (immigration-refugee rules, for example) should only be treated as broad guidelines, and that each situation has to be judged on its own merits, and by that I mean excluding considerations like whether a decision may set an undesirable precedent.

Decency and humanity, two of the surest criteria one can embrace, should and must be the only criteria.

New Crime Discovered in Edmonton

Known in legal circles as politicius pontificus interruptus, Edmonton police are doing everything within their power to prevent this terrible crime from spreading and becoming a national scourge.

More From Paul Watson on Sayed Shah Sharifi

The older I get, the longer I live, the more I realize that true justice is uncommon, and that evil frequently prevails over good. The case of Sayed Shah Sharifi, the Afghan interpreter whose work was so highly-prized by the Canadian military, is only the latest example of this fact.

Continuing his series in The Toronto Star on the plight of this young man, Paul Watson today offers proof that Sharifi's life is in danger from the Taliban for his work with the Canadian military, a claim that has been flatly rejected by immigration officials who have denied him a visa to emigrate to Canada. There is speculation that the rejection was prompted by the fact that the interpreter went public about how he was being treated by officials, an assertion that certainly has plenty of precedent with the Harper government, which has time and time again demonstrated its intolerance for those who disagree with it.

In today's article, Hunter cites the eyewitness account of Philip Hunter, a medic in Canada’s army reserves, who worked closely with Sharifi:

Hunter recalls at least three occasions when he witnessed Sharifi receive threats from insurgents.

Once, Hunter was at Forward Operating Base Wilson, in Kandahar province’s bloodied Zhari district, then roiling with Taliban activity.

The two were drinking tea when Sharifi’s cellphone rang.

“He spoke for a few minutes with the other party before hanging up,” Hunter told me from Ottawa, where he is training to be a civilian paramedic. “While my Pashto is limited, I could tell that there was a bit of a confrontational tone to the conversation.

“When he closed his phone he told me, with a shrug of his shoulders and a half-smile, that it was a local Taliban commander calling him to remind him that he had his phone number, and that he was going to kill him when he got the chance.”

In a similar incident at Masum Ghar, near the front line with territory completely under Taliban control, Sharifi arrived with a platoon on a two-week stint with the Canadian battle group’s quick reaction force, Hunter said.

“When we were chatting outside the medical clinic his phone rang, and it was another Taliban commander calling to tell him that he knew he was now at Masum Ghar, and if he saw Sayed with his troops in the Panjwaii bazaar, the foreigners (us) would not be able to protect him,” Hunter recalled.

Ultimately Sharifi quit his job as interpreter after the Taliban threatened to kill his entire family for his continued work.

The Harper government has a reputation of never backing down on anything. Unfortunately, this jejeune characteristic may very well end up costing the life of a young man who would be a real asset to Canadian society.

My Letter to Jason Kenney Re: Sayed Shah Sharifi

Dear Minister Kenney,

I am writing to express both my shock and my disappointment over Canada's failure to honour its word to Sayed Shah Sharifi, the brave Afghan interpreter who risked the wrath of Taliban insurgents to assist our forces in his country. By all accounts a very brave and competent individual, he, along with other interpreters, was promised sanctuary for himself and his family because of service to our military.

As has been widely reported, despite the fact that he continues to be at risk, our immigration officials have turned down his application for emigration to Canada, the speculation being that it is retaliation for his having made his plight public, thereby embarrassing your government.

I implore you to do the right thing, reverse this decision, and expedite his and his family's passage to Canada. To do anything less can only be seen as a callous and immoral abdication of the promises previously made.

Sincerely,

Lorne Warwick

Canada's International Reputation Continues to Deteriorate

Once looked upon as an honest-broker middle power which enjoyed the respect of almost the entire world, Canada in recent years has seen a steady deterioration in its reputation for many reasons, its unreserved and uncritical support of all things Israeli, the obstructionist role it plays on climate-change, and its on-going export of deadly asbestos to third-world nations that offer no protection to its workers but three of the reasons for this sad decline.

The most recent cause to look with suspicion and disfavour upon our country is found in a story first reported on in Sunday's Toronto Star, with followups in Monday and Tuesday's online editions.

The stories all revolve around an Afghan interpreter, Sayed Shah Sharifi, who by all accounts did exemplary work for the Canadian forces in Afghanistan despite great risk to himself and his family from the Taliban, a risk that continues to this day, with the promise that afterwards he would qualify under a special program to emigrate to Canada for his service.

Unfortunately, Canada has gone back on its word to Sharifi, the suspected reason being that he had brought the failure of our government to fulfill its promise to the press, an embarrassing revelation that seems to have been on the minds of those immigration officials deciding his fate.

I hope you will take some time to read the provided links, and take whatever action you think appropriate to try to right this injustice, including a letter to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.