Thursday, May 31, 2012 09:45 PM By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The number of people fleeing their homes and becoming refugees or displaced in their own countries will increase in the next 10 years as a result of a host of intertwined causes ranging from conflict and climate change to population growth and food shortages, according to a report Thursday by the U.N. refugee agency. “The State of the World’s Refugees,” covering the period 2006-2011, said a key change and dominant challenge is the increasing number of internally displaced people — some 26 million globally compared to around 15-16 million refugees who have crossed borders to another country and a further one million asylum seekers.

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Building the 8th Fire
Deepening the discussion about indigenous–non-indigenous relations in Canada

Did you watch the CBC television series The 8th Fire?
Were you compelled by this show to reflect on relations between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Canada today?

At this panel event and facilitated discussion we will hear from diverse First Nations voices about their perspectives on the 8th Fire and their thoughts on building more ethical and just relations between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. Where do we go from here? Join us to deepen the conversation.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012. 7:00 p.m.
Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia St. Admission is free. Seating is limited.

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CBC News, Posted: May 17, 2012 8:28 AM ET

A group of lawyers is trying to stop the Conservative government from deleting a massive backlog of 280,000 immigration applications, saying the move is unfair because people have been waiting to come to Canada for years. The government announced its decision to wipe out the application backlog in its March budget, saying it is a necessary part of modernizing the country’s immigration system.

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By Janet Bagnall, edmontonjournal.com May 13, 2012

Barely two months after a British Columbia Supreme Court judge certified a $10-million class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 70 temporary foreign workers alleging flagrant violations of pay and working conditions, the Conservative government told Canadian employers that they can start paying short-term foreign workers 15 per cent less than they pay Canadian workers. If the federal government felt any qualms about giving employers carte blanche to create a two-tier workforce, it wasn’t obvious. Its attitude: Canada is facing a labour shortage. This is a way to fix it.

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By Nadia Saad Us Man | April 23, 2012. rabble.ca

Introduced under another signature defensive title, the Conservatives’ Bill C-31: “Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act”, combines exclusionary refugee measures from Bill C-4 (“Protecting Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System”) and Bill C-11 (“Balanced Refugee Reform Act”). Both C-4 and -11 were previously proposed but rejected by opposition while the Conservatives were a minority in Parliament. Now with their full majority power, the Harper government is bringing in even harsher measures through Bill C-31, which was announced in February. Should the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, succeed in his goal to push this bill through by June, refugee claimants will be further invalidated, criminalized and endangered. The burden of the bill’s impact will fall on women, queer- and trans-identifying individuals and their families, and those fleeing from “safe” countries that are Canada’s trade partners.

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