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Remember the war resisters I used to blog about all the time? It may surprise you to learn that many are still in Canada. And are still fighting to stay. For these men and women, it's as if the recent change of government never happened. Of course I realize that a handful of people from the US are not Justin Trudeau's top priority. Still, they are people of peace and conscience. They make Canada a better country. Accepting them  makes Canada a better country. Their cause is just, and the help they need can be so easily provided. * * * * Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has made a decent start at reversing some of the immense damage wrought by Stephen Harper's Conservatives over the past decade. While the Liberals certainly will not rewind everything that needs undoing, Trudeau has taken (or announced he will take) some good first steps. A November 2015 editorial in the Toronto Star noted three examples: Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould rang down the curtain ......

On the long list of anti-democratic policies the majority Harper Government has enacted, the Orwellian-named Fair Elections Act ranks near the top. More properly called a voter suppression law, the Act effectively disenfranchise tens of thousands of Canadians. The Council of Canadians has taken the issue to court, including an ongoing Charter Challenge , but those won't affect the upcoming election. That means there's only one way to lessen the effects: voter education.  Last night at the Malton Library, we contributed to that effort, with  #VotePopUp , a voter education program for new Canadians.  Some weeks ago, I learned that one of our libraries had hosted this program, and jumped onboard. I worked with an amazing community organizer, who has a bit of funding from Samara Canada  and Elections Canada, and copious amounts of know-how through the Peel Poverty Action Group  and her own nonprofit, Building Up Our Communities. I promoted the program through v...

Some years ago, I analyzed the "Discover Canada", the most recent guide for immigrants studying for the Canadian citizenship exam. I compared the booklet to the previous citizenship guide, "A Look At Canada", and found within its pages the Harper Government's vision of Canada. Later, we learned that the citizenship exam itself uses a significantly higher reading level than past exams, and functions as a barrier for many newcomers who wish to become citizens: " jason kenney gets his wish: the anglicising of canadian citizenship ". More recently, columnist Heather Mallick analyzed the new Canadian passport. Unsurprisingly, she found the Harper Government's fingerprints all over it. Mallick: Canada is increasingly becoming unrecognizable to me. I don’t mean this just in an abstract sense, when I read about shameful things like Ottawa trying to avoid taking in refugees who have been tortured, because they require extra medical care. Foreigners who wak...

This story is a bit dated, but many people may have missed it. You may recall that a few months back, Conrad Black, a convicted felon who renounced his Canadian citizenship, received a temporary resident permit from the CIC. This allowed Black to enter and live in Canada despite his prison record; indeed, the permit was arranged while Black was still scrubbing toilets in a Florida pen. Many people were appalled by this spectacle of double standard and hypocrisy. After all, Kenney deports US war resisters - who face imprisonment for refusing to kill innocent people - and claims they are criminals, although they have not been tried or convicted of any crime, but he lays out a red carpet for an actual felon, convicted of criminal fraud and obstruction of justice. What's more, we were supposed to believe that Canada's illustrious Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, who opens and closes the Canadian border according to his own politics and whims, had noth...

Have you all seen this petition? The Honourable [sic] Jason Kenney asks us to sign a petition thanking none other than Jason Kenney. Macleans found it amusing , and the National Post has the Twitter talk . But it took Dan Murphy, cartoonist with The Province , to really do it justice. Please watch and share! Note: To see this video, please click here. The auto-play was too annoying! Also, my recent Kenney-related post is running at The Mark . Also also, this cartoon at the Hamilton Spectator . Also also also, Tabitha Southey: Cabinet minister is a thankless job – unless you’re Jason Kenney .

In some of the best work I've ever done for this blog, I compared "Discover Canada," the Harper Government's new Citizenship Guide , to its predecessor, "A Look at Canada," which was published by several Liberal governments. The results were eye-opening. Based on my analysis of the booklets, I concluded that Stephen Harper's and Jason Kenney's vision of Canada was: A country that: does not value peace and tolerance; measures its history by armed conflict; does not encourage its citizens to work for social justice; is not concerned with protecting the environment; reveres the monarchy; is mostly Christian; warns immigrants to tame their savage ways; and emphasizes obedience to authority. If you haven't read that post, or have only read the shorter versions published at The Mark and Straight Goods , and at the risk of self-tooting, I recommend it. Many more subtle points were lost for space considerations - and now some of those are producing res...

This story -- A Montreal university student was detained at the U.S. border, held for several hours, interrogated, had his personal belongings searched and saw his computer confiscated for more than a week. What caught the authorities’ attention? His doctoral research on Islamic studies, he says. In a case that has attracted media attention in the U.S., Pascal Abidor has become embroiled in a drawn-out legal battle with the American government – and a poster child for civil-rights advocates defending the right to privacy and due process. Mr. Abidor, a 28-year-old American and French dual citizen, was returning by train to Brooklyn in May, 2010, when a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent stopped him at the border in Champlain, N.Y. ... -- reminded me of my own detention at the border , now 2-1/2 years ago, and the several "secondary inspections" and shorter detentions that followed. I ended up re-reading that post - "the gray area": in which i am detained, hara...

Anyone who follows Canadian immigration had to see this coming, although I admit I didn't think they'd do it in one fell swoop. Just as they have done with refugee claimants, the Harper Government TM created a backlog of immigration applicants... then they got rid of it. More than 280,000 people who have been waiting years for a decision on their immigration files could be soon be chopped from the list as the federal government moves to streamline its immigration practices. It’s a decision some immigration lawyers are calling a betrayal by the government that they say is changing the rules too late in the game. “These people have had the rug pulled out from underneath them,” said Montreal-based lawyer David Chalk. “The government of Canada invited people who had certain qualifications to apply, these people invested time energy and hope." Citizenship and Immigration Canada said it’s coping with half a decade of application backlogs by focusing efforts on skilled immigran...

Another take on Jason Kenney's bigotry, by Andrew Potter of the Ottawa Citizen . It would be a lot easier to debate the tough cases of Canadian multiculturalism if people understood how the system actually works. That includes everyone from taxi drivers and barbers to those who spend their time trolling the comment boards of political blogs or loitering around the virtual water-coolers of social media. It includes radio and television hosts, editorialists and pundits. And it also includes the Citizenship and Immigration minister himself, Jason Kenney, who last week announced that henceforward, anyone who takes the oath of citizenship must do so unveiled and uncovered. Announcing the new policy in Montreal, Kenney said that it is "a matter of pure principle, which lies at the heart of our identity and values with respect to openness and equality." The citizenship ceremony, he went on, "defines who we are as Canadians including our mutual responsibilities to one anoth...

Last week I learned citizenship ceremonies now include militarism . This week I learn they also include Islamophobia. I'm grateful I became a citizen before this hateful bullshit started. Face veils banned for citizenship oaths The government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately. As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside. It's a "public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly," he said, calling it "frankly, bizarre" that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths. Kenney said he doesn't accept that it...

I mentioned this yesterday in my post about the Canadian Peace Alliance's Peace & Prosperity not War & Austerity campaign , but it deserves special emphasis. In April 2010, I wrote about the Conservative government's new citizenship guide. This is a booklet sent to all residents of Canada who have applied for Canadian citizenship, to help them prepare for the citizenship exam. You can read the full version here , or a more condensed version at The Mark . My conclusion: This, in brief, is Stephen Harper's, Jason Kenney's and the Conservative Government's Canada. A country that: does not value peace and tolerance; measures its history by armed conflict; does not encourage its citizens to work for social justice; is not concerned with protecting the environment; reveres the monarchy; is mostly Christian; warns immigrants to tame their savage ways; and emphasizes obedience to authority. Since then, the Harper Conservatives have taken another step in their atte...

Amid the deluge of fundraising appeals that arrive via email and paper mail this time of year, the letter from the Canadian Peace Alliance stood out for me. Under the "Canada First Defence Strategy," Harper plans to spend $480 billion on the military, open up eight new Canadian military bases, and showcase Canada's military in all aspects of Canadian life. Remember the citizenship guide that is now rife with references to the military but omits all referenc to Canada as a peaceful nation? ( Short version here. ) It's only gotten worse: citizenship ceremonies are now required to include a speaker from the military , telling new Canadians that military service is the highest form of citizenship. Thank [something] that wasn't in place when Allan and I became citizens. I don't know how I would have sat quietly through that. Harper's military agenda can't be seen in a vacuum. While spending lavishly on fighter jets and new bases, this government is tellin...

Just another story of more undeserving immigrants trying to sneak into the promised land. This one is a particularly sneaky ploy. Here's how you do it. First, emigrate to Canada, a process that takes a minimum of two years, often twice that or longer. Then, live in Canada long enough to become a citizen, a minimum of three years. Then have a car accident in order to become quadriplegic. Yay, free health care! That was easy! Next, find two family members willing to uproot their lives and start over in a foreign country in order to be serve as your full-time caregivers. Can't you just see them high-fiving? "Whoo-hoo, we're scamming the system, taking care of our quadriplegic cousin!" I suck at this satire stuff. Al Weisel , a/k/a Jon Swift , is sorely missed. All I can say is: Really, Jason Kenney? Really? A Toronto woman paralyzed from the chest down is worried she will be forced back into a nursing home if immigration officials go ahead with plans to deport her co...

There's an excellent and eye-opening story in today's New York Times Magazine . Jose Antonio Vargas was born in the Philippines, and came to the United States at age 12. He has lived the American dream, fighting for a quality education, pulling himself up by his bootstraps, working very hard and applying his considerable talents in all the right ways. And still, to this day, he cannot obtain US citizenship, and is at risk for deportation. Vargas shows tremendous courage. He's taken a huge risk to bring his story to light in an attempt to change the insane system. The Obama Administration has deported almost 800,000 people in the last two years. Any one of those stories could be this one. One August morning nearly two decades ago, my mother woke me and put me in a cab. She handed me a jacket. “ Baka malamig doon ” were among the few words she said. (“It might be cold there.”) When I arrived at the Philippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport with her, my aunt and a famil...

Some months back, I learned I have something in common with Keith Richards: Keith wanted to be a librarian . Recently I've learned I have something in common with Superman, although the Man of Steel has gone a step farther than me. Superman announces that he is going to give up his U.S. citizenship. Despite very literally being an alien immigrant, Superman has long been seen as a patriotic symbol of "truth, justice, and the American way," from his embrace of traditional American ideals to the iconic red and blue of his costume. What it means to stand for the "American way" is an increasingly complicated thing, however, both in the real world and in superhero comics, whose storylines have increasingly seemed to mirror current events and deal with moral and political complexities rather than simple black and white morality. The key scene takes place in "The Incident," a short story in Action Comics #900 written by David S. Goyer with art by Miguel Sepul...

Let it not be said that the Harper Government™ does not support equality! Why, there's an entire sentence about gay rights in the new version of the Citizenship Guide! And that's a full sentence more than when the guide was published . See?? Progress!! (Thanks to West End Bob for alerting me to this.)

Major congratulations are in order! Our friends and fellow expatriates "Gito and Mrtew" are now Canadian citizens! Or soon will be: they've passed their test and are scheduled to take their oath. These guys have been through a lot to be together. Because Gito is not a US citizen, they couldn't live together in the US, since their relationship is not legally recognized. They stayed together through deportation and then the long wait of immigration. In Canada, they were able to get married, buy an adorable house in Windsor, and make their life together. Gito is now attending university. We finally met in person for the first time a few years ago , and I'm sure we'll all see each other again. The Red Sox in Detroit are a great excuse to visit friends in Windsor. You can see Gito's amazing and unusual photography at eggfactory and Arte is Foto . Becoming Canadian means a lot to me, and our journey from that first thought - "Maybe we should move to Canad...

Nick, the very first person to find wmtc and ask me about moving to Canada, becomes a Canadian citizen today. Nick's last appearance on wmtc was his It Gets Better video . Congratulations, Nick! Canada is very lucky to have you.

Remember the Harper Government's new Citizenship Guide ? It's working. Massive failure rates follow new, tougher Canadian citizenship tests Failure rates for immigrants writing citizenship tests have soared since the spring, when tougher questions and revamped rules made it harder for newcomers to become Canadian. The new test, introduced March 15, was based on a bulked-up citizenship guide released a year ago to give immigrants a richer picture of Canada’s history, culture, law and politics. The 63-page guide, Discover Canada , replaced a slimmer volume dating from 1995 that had fewer facts to memorize. The failure rate for the old citizenship test, with questions drawn from the smaller guide, ranged between four and eight per cent. Failure rates for the new test, however, rocketed to about 30 per cent when it was first introduced — prompting officials to revise the rules to avoid clogging the system with thousands of would-be Canadians who, because they had flunked, often ha...

I am voting! In Canada! For the first time! Please can I vote in a federal election ASAP???? Torontonians: Why you should vote .