Harsha Walia, Vancouver Sun, April 5 2011

Federal politicians have been attempting to gain sympathies with immigrant voters, while simultaneously spouting racist rhetoric.  A Conservative party ad depicts the MV Sun Sea carrying 492 Tamil refugees as “criminals who target Canadian generosity”. Despite the fact that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney must be (or should be) versed in refugee law and the internationally upheld reality of irregular migration, he justified the ad: “Anyone who’s coming to Canada illegally is breaking our laws. Such statements are not only misleading, they are deliberately irresponsible in facilitating and feeding off a growing anti-migrant sentiment. An Ottawa Sun editorial, for example, parroted that the migrants are “queue-jumpers, scam artists, back-door home invaders, plus a terrorist or two…Truth is, none is even a bona fide refugee”, and suggested firing on the ship: “Lock and load would be our approach.”

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Montreal Gazette April 2, 2011

37 days: The time it takes Citizenship and Immigration Canada to assess the sponsor of a spouse or child.
42 months: The time it takes CIC to assess the sponsor of a parent or grandparent.
60,207: Number of family-class applicants (spouses, children, parents and grandparents) given permanent residence in 2010, down 15 per cent since 2006.
186,881: Number of economic immigrants admitted to Canada in 2010, up 35 per cent since 2006.
96,147: The number of foreign students allowed into Canada in 2010, up 33 per cent from 2006.
182,322: The number of temporary foreign workers who entered Canada in 2010, up 31 per cent over 2006.
24,693: The number of refugees given permanent residence in Canada in 2010, down 25 per cent since 2006.

Globe and Mail Update. Thursday, Mar. 31, 2011 11:00PM EDT

Opposition parties turned the tables on the Conservatives Thursday, arguing that while the Tories have billed themselves tough on human smuggling they’ve actually helped put more money in smugglers’ pockets and left migrants in a “ridiculous conundrum.” Several lawyers recently told The Globe and Mail that some of the MV Sun Sea migrants were essentially forced to sell their belongings and family land so they could pay off smugglers and be released from detention. The Canada Border Services Agency had argued those migrants should be kept in custody because they owed money to the organizers of the MV Sun Sea’s voyage and could be flight risks under the smugglers’ control. The lawyers said that left the migrants with little choice but to pay the smugglers, a fact opposition critics called disgraceful.

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By Jim Creskey, The Embassy, Mar. 30 2011

Jason Kenney was making changes to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration at a torrid pace—or so it seemed—until he was stopped dead in his tracks last week by a non-confidence vote. Now, before the May 2 election, might be a good time to take stock of what he accomplished. The migration department he was given by Stephen Harper was a house built on policy and practice laid by Liberals and Mulroney Progressive Conservatives and shaped by Charter rulings, public consultations and politics—lots of politics. It was a place of noble aims, practical goals, unkept promises, interminable long waits and a lot of over-worked public servants—some of them amazingly compassionate, others sullen and patronizing. A few were even found to be corrupt.

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By Carl Meyer, The Embassy, Mar. 30 2011

Indo-Canadians have little doubt the Asian country’s inclusion in the budget was the latest effort to win their votes.

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper kicked off Campaign 2011 by strolling onto a stage at the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton, Ont., on March 27, he must have been hit with a particularly strong case of déjà vu. The Conservative leader had stepped foot in the exact same building days earlier to address a local business representative luncheon. There he talked at length about his government’s newest federal budget, which was unveiled several days later, and hinted that he expected the opposition to reject the document.

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