Greetings everyone,
Robin is scheduled to be transported to the Lower Mainland from Kamloops sometime tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the hearing for his application for a stay of deportation will be at 9:30 am in Vancouver.
We will gather at 8:30 am at 701 W. Georgia St. (north side of W. Georgia between Granville & Howe St.)
After drawing the support from the morning commuters, we will attend the hearing on the 7th floor.
Please come out to support Robin and all the War Resisters if you able, and spread the word!
War Resisters Support Campaign
Vancouver
http://ca.geocities.com/vanresisters/
Tel: 778-837-1475
c/o 1143 E Pender St
Vancouver BC V6A 1W6
SEND YOUR MESSAGE OF SUPPORT AND GOOD WILL TO JAILED WAR RESISTER ROBIN LONG
EMAIL TO: robertages@dccnet.com
SUBJECT LINE: For Robin Long
Robert will ensure Robin receives your message of hope and support along with those of all his supporters across the country. Please do the following:
1. Send this email to your lists
2. Call or email Immigration and Citizenship Minister Diane Finley,613.996.4974, finley.d@parl.gc.ca OR finled1@parl.gc.ca and
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, 613.992.4211, pm@pm.gc.ca
Ask them to stop the deportations and uphold the June 3rd motion in Parliament calling for sanctuary in Canada for all war resisters. Background:
| Robin Long was arrested in Nelson B.C. last Friday and is threatened with deportation as early as Tuesday July 15. He is now being held in Kamloops. We have to act quickly to ensure the government does not illegally deport him before a federal judge issues a stay order. At what was expected to be a routine detention hearing, it was revealed that a negative decision had been issued on his Pre-Removal Risk Assessment in early May; but the information was never communicated to either Robin or his counsel. The refusal of the federal government to stop deportations, and actions taken by the Canadian Border Services Agency, make it clear the Canadian government wishes to hand the conscientious objectors to George Bush as soon as possible. This is contrary to the views of a majority of Canadians and the will of Parliament. |
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| Vótenme y se acabaron redadas y clandestinidad: Obama a latinos | ||
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El aspirante presidencial demócrata, Barack Obama, pidió ayer que los latinos lo respalden para poder ganar las elecciones de noviembre en Estados Unidos; a cambio, prometió el fin de las redadas y una reforma migratoria en su primer año de mandato. “Estoy acá para prometerles esto: seré un presidente que les apoya, que lucha por ustedes y les acompaña en cada paso del camino”, dijo durante la 40 conferencia anual en San Diego del Consejo Nacional de La Raza (NCLR, por sus siglas en inglés), la organización hispana más influyente de EU. Ante más de dos mil personas hacinadas en el centro de convenciones advirtió: “No se equivoquen: la comunidad latina tiene en sus manos estas elecciones. Piensen en lo poderosos que podrían ser si el 4 de noviembre traducen sus números en votos”. A cambio de su apoyo, Obama prometió ayuda para extender el seguro médico a los que trabajan en la pequeña empresa —una idea copiada de Hillary Clinton— y la “prioridad absoluta” de abordar la reforma migratoria desde su primer año de presidencia. “No sólo porque tenemos que asegurar nuestras fronteras y asumir el control de quién entra en nuestro país; no sólo porque tenemos que tomar medidas estrictas contra los empleadores que abusan de los indocumentados, sino porque tenemos que sacar, finalmente, a esos 12 millones de personas de las sombras”, puntualizó. El senador prefiere una solución “práctica” al tema migratorio, y ha subrayado que se opone a la deportación de los cerca de 12 millones de inmigrantes indocumentados que viven en el país. Legalizar a los que “rectifiquen”. “Sí, violaron la ley. Y no debemos disculpar eso. Debemos exigirles que paguen una multa, aprendan inglés y se pongan al final de la cola para la ciudadanía, detrás de los que entraron legalmente”, dijo en referencia a los indocumentados. “Por eso que tenemos que ofrecerles a los que están dispuestos a rectificar, una vía a la ciudadanía”. También criticó el sistema migratorio actual, señalando que “sencillamente no funciona”. “El sistema no funciona cuando las empresas contratan a inmigrantes indocumentados en lugar de a ciudadanos legales para no pagarles horas extra o para evitar que formen un sindicato; cuando las redadas de inmigración aterrorizan a comunidades; cuando separan a niños de sus madres; cuando los niños llegan de la escuela para encontrar que sus padres han desaparecido”, apuntó. ****************** Lessons from Down UnderLesleyanne Hawthorne, National Post Published: Monday, June 23, 2008 There has been a lot of discussion of late about the Harper government's proposed changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. When it becomes law, Bill C-50 will refine Canada's economic selection policy, giving the immigration minister the authority to identify priority occupations and fast-track applicants with skills and experience that correspond to employers' needs. Indeed, the government's attempt to modernize the immigration selection process will bring Canada more in line with the demands of today's labour market. Until recently, Australia and Canada had the same approach to economic migration. Canada continues to maintain a human capital approach to the immigrant selection process, which has resulted in admitting applicants with limited host-country language ability, non-recognized credentials and qualifications in fields that have weak labour market demand. The deterioration of labour market outcomes for recent immigrants to Canada has been known for some time. The problems associated with underemployment, skills wastage and earnings gap relative to Canadian-born counterparts are now being compounded by the chronic poverty experienced by skilled and educated newcomers. While the economic selection process has remained status quo in Canada, Australia has taken a markedly different course. Indeed, major policy differences have emerged between Canada and Australia in terms of point-based selection in the past decade. In Australia's experience the human capital model of selection had proven flawed--delivering principal applicants lacking the attributes employers sought. Since 1999, Australia has used research evidence to exclude economic category applicants at risk of poor employment outcomes at point of entry by considerably expanding pre-migration English language testing and mandatory credential assessment, and awarding bonus points for high-demand occupations. In redesigning its economic selection criteria, the Australian government affirmed the program's original intent: to select economic migrants who can make an immediate contribution to the economy by employing their skills at an appropriate place in the labour market. Parallel goals were to reduce skills wastage among recent arrivals and to limit the level of government investment required to support their labour market adjustment needs (by the mid-'90s, this amounted to some AUD$250-million of annual federal funding for employment, credential recognition and English-language training -- and even this was inadequate). Former international students have become important participants in the program. In theory, such students have financed their own efforts to meet domestic employers' demand: they are young and acculturated, and they have advanced English language ability and fully recognized credentials. To what extent have Australia's revised selection criteria transformed employment outcomes relative to Canada's, in a context where governments frame migration policy but employers retain the power to offer or withhold work? Simply put, degree-qualified economic migrants have performed indisputably better in Australia than in Canada in the past decade. Far greater proportions of newcomers in Australia secure positions fast, achieve professional or managerial status, earn high salaries and use their professional credentials in work. In the process, unprecedented numbers of economic migrants have avoided labour market displacement and overqualification. These policy changes have not discouraged or distorted migration flows -- the number of economic migrants increased from 77,800 in 2004-05 to 102,500 in 2007-08. Racial and ethnic diversity has been strongly maintained. Most importantly, employment outcomes have dramatically improved for traditionally disadvantaged groups -- including economic migrants from Eastern Europe, India, the Philippines and China -- as a result of more effective screening. The Australian experience suggests such outcomes are highly amenable to policy intervention. Important Canadian policy initiatives are already underway to improve foreign credential recognition, the transition of former international students and temporary workers to economic migration, and to expand the Provincial Nominee Program. Major sums are being invested to address labour market barriers for skilled migrants, including language and bridging courses. These are timely initiatives, given that many skilled migrants are more likely now to face chronic low income and poverty than did previous cohorts. Alongside such measures, Canada should consider adopting mandatory pre-migration Englishand French-language assessments. It would also make sense to reevaluate the proportion of points allocated to pre-migration work experience, as it is currently systematically discounted by Canadian employers. In the knowledge economy the stakes are high, both for economic migrants and for the nation. - Lesleyanne Hawthorne is associate dean, international, at the University of Melbourne and the author of The Impact of Economic Selection Policy on Labour Market Outcomes of Degree-Qualified Migrants in Canada and Australia, published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy, www.irpp.org.
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