Minister of Immigration Marc Miller said Wednesday that “the era of unlimited supply of cheap foreign labor is over” and that employers may have to offer higher wages to attract more Canadian workers. Speaking to reporters after addressing the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, Miller also suggested the federal government could consider beefing up law enforcement resources to crack down on irregular migrants who don’t leave Canada, and addressed the need for mutual enforcement of the Safe Third Country. Agreement with the United States Miller said it’s important to address what is sometimes “a very disproportionate relationship between employers and employees” when it comes to low-cost temporary foreign workers. “There are exploitative relationships and we must suppress them. That includes a living wage,” Miller said, pointing to some low-wage sectors like agriculture and food processing. “It’s clear that the era of unlimited supply of cheap foreign labor is over, and I think that’s a good thing,” he said. Story continues below advertisement 1:58 Changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program However, he acknowledged that the crackdowns mean that “this year and next year will be a turbulent year” as these changes come into force, “but reducing the numbers, I think, is very important to ensure we don’t just chase the short circuit. one long-term gain for a lot of long-term pain. This year, Canada limited the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers in most sectors and increased their minimum wages in an effort to end employers’ reliance on a labor force cheap foreign. Recently, a job offer at a Burger King in the Toronto area has prompted observers and experts to question whether the temporary foreign worker program is being used to avoid paying Canadians higher wages. ‘More enforcement’ needed to deport illegal residents, Miller says Miller said Wednesday that Ottawa was still studying “what steps Canada needs to take to step up enforcement” and highlighted what he called record levels of removals of temporary visa and work permit holders who choose to stay illegally. Story continues below advertisement Asked if that meant more resources, including additional Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers, Miller said, “that’s how it works.” Get the latest national news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts sent directly to you as they happen. “In the context of law enforcement, generally speaking, we definitely need to look at the enforcement mechanisms that we employ to make sure that people who don’t want to leave after due process actually leave,” he said. he declared. “I’m not going to publicly share our plans for enforcement, but more enforcement means more resources.” The government was pressed by opposition parties and the provinces on its plan. to add additional resources to the U.S.-Canada border in anticipation of a potential increase in the number of people seeking to enter Canada from the United States, where President-elect Donald Trump has promised expulsions massive. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Wednesday that the government “will ensure that Canada’s borders are secure and that we have the resources necessary to ensure their security” but did not confirm “hypothetical” needs in personnel at the CBSA. 2:21 Canada prepares for wave of asylum seekers after Trump victory The government says The CBSA made 11,444 removals from 2019 to 2020, the highest number in the previous five years. Global News asked the agency for its current removal figures. Story continues below advertisement However, CBSA figures tabled in Parliament earlier this year suggest that most people who have received deportation letters over the past eight years remain in Canada, which the Conservative Party says suggests a lack of law enforcement. Last month, when Miller and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that they were reducing the number of new permanent residents in the country by 21 percent by next year, they also outlined plans that they said would effectively curb population growth for two years by reducing temporary residents to less than five percent of the general population. Current trend Trump appointees criticized Trudeau and Canada’s border security Here’s how long Canada Post’s pressure tactics lasted and how much they cost Miller said at the time that the permanent residency program would focus on “those who are already here,” and said Wednesday that meant tapping into the pool of foreign workers — meaning many temporary permit holders will be able to later apply for permanent residence. 3:18 Why is Canada reducing its immigration targets? Miller said Wednesday that while most temporary visa holders leave after their visas expire, those who stay are breaking the law, and the government needs to make that “very clear.” Story continues below advertisement “When you have a temporary program, it has to mean something,” he said. “That means people might eventually have to leave or would have to leave. » A 2018 Global News investigation found the government had become increasingly ineffective in conducting evictions for reasons of public safety and security. As a result, the number of foreign citizens remaining in Canada despite being deported increased from just 291 in 2012 to nearly 1,200 at the start of 2018. Although U.S. immigration is primarily focused on the southern border with Mexico, the Canadian border has also received attention from Republicans, including Trump’s recent appointments to his new administration. In an interview Monday with his local television news channel 7News In Watertown, New York – a community near the Ontario border – America’s new “border czar” Tom Homan said there was an “extreme national security vulnerability” along of the Canadian-American border which will also have to be addressed.

It was the first time that Michelle Angela Hamelin, Canadian UN peacekeeper, said she encountered the raw emotion of a people so exasperated by the difficult situation in which her country finds itself. Marked in his memory after his eight-month tour of duty in the ethnically divided country Cyprus in 1986, it was the fury of Greek Cypriot demonstrators who demonstrated against the very first visit by a Turkish head of government to the separatist Turkish Cypriot north of the island. “I think that’s something that really stuck with me because of that anger and the people,” Hamelin told the Associated Press. She was among 100 other Canadian veterans who traveled to Cyprus as part of commemorations that culminated Monday in marking the 60th anniversary of the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNFICYP, the longest Canadian mission of its type. “It was the first time I was confronted with people who were really, really upset about the situation they were in,” she said. Story continues below advertisement Canadian veteran Ronald Reginald Griffis, center, with other veterans, salutes Monday during a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Canada’s contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, at Wolseley Barracks , inside a UN-controlled buffer zone that divides the capital Nicosia, Cyprus. AP Photo/Petros Karadjias At the time, it had been a dozen years since a Turkish invasion – triggered by a coup seeking union with Greece – had carved up the island along ethnic lines and tensions were still high. UNFICYP had been in place since 1964, a decade before the invasion, deployed to quell hostilities between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to avoid all-out civil war. Get the latest national news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts sent directly to you as they happen. Canadians were among the first to join the force and more than 28,000 of them would eventually serve in UNFICYP. Canada withdrew almost all of its UNFICYP peacekeepers in 1993, but a Canadian presence remains. 1:24 Peacekeeping ‘change’ requires countries to respond to UN needs Some 28 Canadians lost their lives in the line of duty in Cyprus. Story continues below advertisement For most of 1986, Hamelin’s job was to patrol the UN-controlled buffer zone that separated troops on either side of the border in the medieval center of the capital, Nicosia, staying in the luxurious former Ledra Palace hotel which had been transformed into a UN barracks. The bullet-riddled sandstone walls of the hotel were a constant reminder that a resumption of hostilities could never be ruled out. “The Turkish side where I was staying was right there, under my window at Ledra Palace… there were bullet holes above your bed. It’s possible that this will happen again,” she recalls. Learn more about Canada More videos This is not the case. Hamelin said his Canadian colleagues often pooled all their diplomatic skills with nervous soldiers to prevent tensions from escalating. Ronald Reginald Griffis could attest to this calm and characteristic Canadian attitude which has earned the country’s peacekeepers a reputation for impartiality and ability to quickly defuse tensions. Current trend How Canadian Consumers Can Spot Counterfeit $2 Coins RCMP report reveals new details about Greater Toronto Area man and his fake camel toe coins Griffis was one of the first Canadians to serve in UNFICYP in 1964, and he recalled how he would use this cool Canadian method to settle disputes along the so-called Green Line that separated Greek and Cypriot neighborhoods Turks in old Nicosia. “One of the qualities was the calmness of the Canadians. They listened, or at least I listened. And then, you know, you talk about it. You try to explain things,” said Griffis, a Nova Scotia native who now lives in Cottam, Ontario. Story continues below advertisement “I thought they appreciated the Canadians being there and I think they trusted the Canadians to do what they can do,” he said. 1:35 Western military strengthens its presence in Cyprus, ready to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon More than 100 active-duty Canadian Armed Forces members, sent to Cyprus to assist with possible evacuations of Canadians from neighboring Lebanon, joined Hamelin, Griffis and other veterans for a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Canadian Memorial to UN Peacekeepers, inside the buffer zone near Ledra. Palace hotel. Canada’s High Commissioner to Cyprus, Anna-Karine Asselin, said the size of the delegation at the commemoration event illustrated “the deep meaning of the mission” for Canadian veterans. “We pay tribute to their invaluable contribution to peace. We recognize the challenges they have faced throughout their journey,” Asselin said. A few days earlier, Hamelin and Griffis had participated in a tour of the buffer zone that brought back many memories. Story continues below advertisement Both spoke about the changes in Cyprus then and now – from donkey-drawn carts on the streets of Nicosia in 1964 to a thoroughly modern European Union member state 60 years later. But for Hamelin, no matter how much things have changed in Cyprus, they remain much the same. “I see how this is developing in Nicosia. But it’s always the same. We still have this division and it’s very, very… in your face,” she said. &copy 2024 The Canadian Press Source link

Applause broke out repeatedly at the Canada Life Center in Winnipeg on Sunday when the son of Murray Sinclair, a former judge, senator and chair of the Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission, spoke about his father. Niigaan Sinclair said his father “was a first” in every room he entered. “It was impossible to walk through a mall without 17 people, two of whom he had already sentenced to prison, coming up to him and telling him how much they appreciated him,” Niigaan Sinclair said. Sinclair’s death Monday, at the age of 73, drew tributes from across the country and a sacred fire was lit outside the Manitoba legislature. Indigenous leaders and politicians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, attended the service honoring Sinclair’s legacy at the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets stadium on Sunday. “He became for me a wise teacher, a trusted confidant, an insightful elder. And above all, a friend who challenged me to always do better,” Trudeau said. Story continues below advertisement Sinclair, he said, “changed this country for the better.” 2:52 “Canada has lost a giant”: Trudeau pays tribute to pioneering Indigenous leader Murray Sinclair As chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Sinclair heard testimony from thousands of residential school survivors and the commission’s final report contained 94 calls to action. Receive national news daily Get the day’s top news, politics, business and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day. He was the first Aboriginal judge in Manitoba and the second in Canada, and he co-chaired the Manitoba Aboriginal Justice Inquiry to examine whether the justice system was failing Aboriginal people. Sunday’s memorial was the first national memorial ceremony for an Indigenous person. Governor-General. Mary Simon said she became emotional while telling her own story to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Sinclair comforted her with warmth and compassion. “People around him felt a sense of confidence and authenticity, a feeling that they could be who they are without judgment,” she said. Story continues below advertisement Sinclair’s obituary describes his journey as an Indigenous man born in the early 1950s. His traditional Anishinaabe name is Mazina Giizhik, or He Who Speaks of Images in the Sky. “Growing up, Mazina Giizhik experienced racism but never lost her sense of hope, duty and responsibility,” we read. 2:53 Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, dies at 73 Niigaan Sinclair said one of his father’s favorite stories was about the racism he experienced during his first week as Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge. He was at a lunch with a group of judges when one of them spoke to him. “He turned to my dad and said, ‘You know, Murray, the only reason you got nominated is because we all feel bad. We all feel bad about Indigenous people,” said Niigaan Sinclair. “My father turned to him and said, ‘You’re only here because you’re a white man.’ » Story continues below advertisement Niigaan Sinclair said he once asked his father if it was a sense of duty that drove him to continue fighting, to endure nightmares listening to residential school survivors, to miss family events to fight against institutions, laws and people in power who treated others with disdain. “I said, ‘Is it because you were such a hard-working guy?’ Because he was Athlete of the Year in 1968, he reminded me of every day of my life,” Niigaan Sinclair said, drawing hearty laughter from the crowd. “Was it because of a responsibility, something you learned in the legal profession, or was it because of a larger situation?” he continued. “You know, what did he say to me? He said simply: “I have been called. » 1:09 Memorial in Winnipeg on Sunday for judge, senator and TRC president Murray Sinclair &copy 2024 The Canadian Press Source link