http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rocco-galati-launches-lawsuit-over-citizenship-act-changes-1.2687221

Rocco Galati launches lawsuit over Citizenship Act changes

Toronto lawyer's court documents say Governor General had no 'constitutional authority' to pass Bill C-24

By Susana Mas, CBC News Posted: Jun 25, 2014 1:31 PM ET Last Updated: Jun 25, 2014 5:18 PM ET

Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati is suing Gov. Gen. David Johnston, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and Justice Minister Peter MacKay over changes to Canada's Citizenship Act.

In documents filed Wednesday morning in Federal Court, Galati asks the court to invalidate key provisions included in a new law that gives the government the power to revoke the citizenship of Canadian-born citizens convicted of "terrorism, high treason, or spying offences" or "who take up arms against Canada" if they hold dual citizenship.

The provisions passed into law last Thursday when Bill C-24, the government's Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, received royal assent.

• Mobile users, read the court document here
• ANALYSIS | Chris Hall: The slippery slope of revoking citizenship

​Galati has already successfully challenged Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s appointment of Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In the court documents filed Wednesday, Galati argues it was beyond the Governor General's "constitutional authority" to pass Bill C-24.

The bill itself, Galati argues, goes well beyond Parliament's own reach.

The Toronto lawyer had asked parliamentarians and the Governor General to refer key provisions of Bill C-24 to the Supreme Court for a legal opinion.

In a phone interview with CBC News on Wednesday, Galati said he received a reply from the Governor General's office on June 16 simply acknowledging the content of his original letter.

Nevertheless, Bill C-24 passed into law three days later.

"It is unconstitutional," Galati said.

Marie-Êve Létourneau, a spokeswoman for the Governor General, said they could not comment as the matter is now before the courts.

The office for MacKay, who also serves as the attorney general, referred all comment to the minister of immigration.

A spokeswoman for Alexander would not comment directly on the lawsuit, saying only that "Canadians gave us a strong mandate to protect and strengthen the value of Canadian citizenship."

Galati filed the legal challenge on behalf of a group of lawyers including Manuel Azevedo and the Constitutional Rights Centre.

Another “Wizard of Oz” moment for Jason Kenney

Canada’s coming economic headache: A serious shortage of skilled workers

Canadian Press | June 25, 2014 | Last Updated: Jun 25 11:22 AM ET
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AP PhotoCanada's Employment Minister Jason Kenney says the construction, mining and petroleum sectors are examples of industries that will face serious shortages of skilled workers over the next decade.

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TORONTO — Canada’s employment minister says a shortage of skilled workers will be one of the country’s greatest future economic challenges.

Jason Kenney gave the warning today at a skills summit in Toronto where stakeholders have gathered to discuss the labour market, employee training and those under-represented in the labour force.

Laura Pedersen/National Post“What we ought to do is ensure that young people make fully informed decisions that are unencumbered by stigmas attached to skilled work,” says Jason Kenney.

Kenney says the construction, mining and petroleum sectors are examples of industries that will face serious shortages of skilled workers over the next decade.

He adds that stakeholders need to de-stigmatize the trades and encourage young workers to enter skilled vocations.

The minister cites countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom as places where apprenticeship programs offer youth better employment options.

The conference comes less than a week after Kenney announced a myriad of changes to the controversial temporary foreign workers program.

Related

• Jack M. Mintz: Why Canada’s labour market needs to be overhaule
• Canada’s live-in caregiver program ‘ran out of control’ and will be reformed: Jason Kenney

The new changes include a limit on the number of foreign workers that large and medium-sized companies are permitted to hire, stiffer penalties for companies found to be violating the new rules and on-site audits and inspections to guard against abuses.

"Last Friday (June 20, 2104) Jason ordered that thousands of construction workers be sent back to Europe.

Today, he says that Canada needs construction workers.

Jason will dip into his Wizard’s bag and find the workers to build the Pan Am Games facilities.

He may even go to church on Sunday and light a candle in the hope that the hundreds of millions of dollars he has “invested” on skills training will generate at least one cement finisher." 

Richard Boraks, 25 June 2014

Lukaszek and Jason Kenney

Tom Lukaszek has been Alberta’s Deputy Premier, Minister of Immigration and Minister of Employment.This September, he may become Alberta’s Premier.

Jason Kenney has called Tom Lukaszek a “complete and utter asshole”.

Tom Lukaszek and Jason Kenney are both from Alberta.

Lukaszek is educated. He has business experience. He is a self made man. He has never switched political parties. He understands loyalty to public service.

Kenney is uneducated. He has no business or life experience. He switches sides more often than he changes socks.   

 

Tom Lukaszek has the wisdom and courage to stand up to Ottawa’s absurd immigration programs. He understands the worth of qualified trades workers.

We can trust people like Tom Lukaszek.

Chris Alexander has called Rocco Galati a “disgrace”.

Rocco Galati is Canada’s leading constitutional lawyer. He has never lived from government. He is a self made man.  

Chris Alexander has never lived or worked in the real world. He does not understand business or workers.

We can trust people like Rocco Galatti.

We are not alone. 

VIDEO

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Politics/Power+%26+Politics/ID/2467166118/

Video

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Politics/Power%2B&%2BPolitics/ID/2467166118/

June 20, 2014

On Wednesday June 25, at 8 pm we are having a general meeting at our office.

• The purpose of the meeting is for our clients to decide if they want to go forward with their immigration applications

In May and June 2014, Ottawa confirmed that it is planning to kill the chances of European work permit and landed immigrant applicants in Ontario

Ottawa is driving ahead with its crazy January 1, 2015 plan to stop European immigrant or temporary tradespersons who cannot pass the language exam. Even those who can pass the language exam could be finished on January 1, 2015

Ottawa expects that skilled workers in the GTA will leave Canada  

It is clear that Ottawa’s agenda has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with benefitting a few third world recruiters. Ottawa is giving a visa monopoly to accountants etc from India and Zaire

Even those applicants with PNP sponsorships will have a hard time staying in Canada while waiting for their immigrant papers

The good news is that:

• The PNP program will be improved. The province has indicated that it will be supportive of the trades programs
• Few people are accepting Ottawa’s policies... there is room for change

My blog provides full background: workercanadaimmigration.blogspot.ca

Our response

Ours is the only office working to protect our trades clients, including companies and workers, both legal and illegal.

• We are going to Federal Court , and if necessary , the Supreme Court of Canada with constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati
• We are working with government in Ontario to defend trades workers and their employers 

Although there are no guarantees that we will succeed, there is no option but to proceed. We are quite hopeful. As of today:

• With the exception of a few CEC clients (those who have passed the language exam and worked legally  for one year ) we will not take any more fee money UNLESS the client is prepared to go to court

It makes no sense to apply for LMO’s or federal immigration programs unless we go to court and lobby Ontario

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TRENDINGFP500 | Iraq | Ford | Moncton | Bergdahl | Ukraine | Ontario | BlackBerry | Trudeau

Tory government fails to inspect a single place hiring temporary foreign workers despite promise made last year

Steve Rennie, Canadian Press | June 20, 2014 11:48 AM ET
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THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldMinister of Employment and Minister of Multiculturalism Jason Kenney responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, June 9, 2014.

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Not one Canadian employer of temporary foreign workers has been inspected to date despite a Conservative government promise to do so during last year’s initial overhaul of the controversial program.

Now, with additional changes to the program to be announced Friday, questions are swirling around why Ottawa has been so slow to act on a major part of the changes announced last December.

The Canadian Press made a request under the Access to Information Act for all inspection reports of workplaces that employ temporary foreign workers. But in a letter dated June 2, Employment and Social Development Canada said none have been carried out.

“Department officials have informed our office that workplace inspections are expected to occur beginning in fall 2014,” wrote Jackie Holden, the department’s director of access to information and privacy.

“As a result, ESDC does not have the information you requested.”

They’ve been pushing and pushing for more [foreign workers] and now all of a sudden they’re pushing for less

New regulations announced last December gave the government the power to inspect workplaces to make sure employers were following the rules of the temporary worker program.

And even before Employment Minister Jason Kenney could unveil the latest changes Friday, a bill giving the government the power to fine employers received royal assent.

The budget implementation bill became law late Thursday. Deep in the legislation are provisions that give Kenney a bigger say in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and that allow the government to set up a system of “administrative monetary penalties” to slap on employers who don’t follow the rules.

The government is also refusing to release emails and summaries of calls made to the government’s tip line to report abuses of the temporary foreign worker program.

Related

• Temporary foreign worker program overhaul Friday likely to limit low-wage jobs
• Andrew Coyne: The solution to the Great Temporary Foreign Workers Panic is to get rid of the ‘temporary ’ part
• Requests for temporary foreign workers soar in P.E.I., despite province’s high unemployment rate
• McDonald’s Canada hires Deloitte to carry out audit of its use of the temporary foreign worker program

In a letter sent to Liberal critic John McCallum’s office, Employment and Social Development Canada refused to release the information under a section of the Access to Information Act that exempts records that could put people in danger. The department also claims an exemption under a part of the law that protects people’s privacy.

McCallum is not convinced the Conservative changes will make the temporary foreign workers program more fair for Canadian workers and businesses.

“In general, they’ve taken a lot of years to totally mess things up,” McCallum said in a phone interview. “They’ve been pushing and pushing for more [foreign workers] and now all of a sudden they’re pushing for less.”

Even if the reforms plug holes in the temporary workers program, employers will still be able to find loopholes through the International Experience Canada program, he argued.

“I’m not confident in their desire to really fix it other than to deflate a political crisis.”

Calls to Kenney’s office were not immediately returned.

Here we are using a lot of guess work to fix a program that even the Conservatives have admitted — right up to the prime minister — is fundamentally broken

Both opposition parties are concerned that the government is meddling with the job market without having reliable information to base policy on.

“Here we are using a lot of guess work to fix a program that even the Conservatives have admitted — right up to the prime minister — is fundamentally broken,” said the NDP’s Jinny Sims.

She wants to see specific provisions that would require employers to hire Canadians first and boost wages as a first step to finding the right workers if they don’t come forward immediately.

The program has become a hot potato for the Harper government ever since stories of abuses came to light in the news media, including one case where Royal Bank employees were asked to train foreign workers to take over their jobs.

In February, 65 Alberta ironworkers alleged they were let go so that foreign workers could replace them.

Canadian firms are using the program more and more to fill both high- and low-skilled positions, despite relatively high levels of unemployment and data showing that the ratio of unemployed to job vacancies is rising.

A recent government calculation estimated there were 386,000 temporary foreign workers in Canada, or about two per cent of the labour force, up from about 100,000 in 2002.

Rocco Galati possesses courage

JOANNA GUALTIERI More from Joanna Gualtieri

Published on: June 13, 2014Last Updated: June 13, 2014 9:55 AM EDT

Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati is pictured in Winnipeg, July 16, 2012.

Trevor Hagan / CP

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Re: Immigration minister on the attack as lawyer threatens challenge, June 11.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander’s attack on lawyer Rocco Galati for Galati‘s plans to legally challenge the Conservative government’s citizenship bill is disgraceful.

It is beneath the dignity Canadians expect from all politicians but it is particularly sophomoric from a minister who held out the promise of being cut from a different, more dignified, cloth.Immigration Minister Chris Alexander’s attack on lawyer Rocco Galati for Galati‘s plans to legally challenge the Conservative government’s citizenship bill is disgraceful.

Further, Alexander’s polemics are intellectually illogical.

Alexander called Galati a “disgraced” lawyer. It is hardly a disgrace to have been the lawyer responsible, as Galati was, for successfully mounting the legal challenge that removed the constitutionally ineligible government appointment of Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In this regard, Galati possesses something of which Alexander appears to be completely bereft: courage.

Joanna Gualtieri, Ottawa

Share your views on this and other topics to the editor by writing to letters@ottawacitizen.com

"Immigration and the Province of Ontario

It is clear that any long term solution to the skilled trades worker mess in Ontario will be made in Ontario and not Ottawa.

As things stand today, neither Ottawa nor Ontario has any desire to deal with the trades worker problems in Ontario.

Hopefully, following the election on June 12, 2014, our new provincial government will wake up.

Both the provincial Liberals and Conservatives are talking sense on the PNP program and skilled trades.

Let see what happens.     "

Richard Boraks, June 10, 2014

"We have decided to go to Federal Court

We will ask the Court to order the Federal Ministers to:

• Stop refusing landed immigrant status to workers who cannot pass the British governments language exam   
• Stop demanding that work permit applicants read and write English even though employers do not require this skill
• Stop giving priority to workers from England and Ireland
• Stop the right of Irish and British governments selecting Canadian  immigrants
• Provide the statistics confirming that there are unemployed, qualified workers tradespersons in the GTA such as construction workers, butchers, pastry chefs
• We will also ask the Court to order the Province to support our clients’ issues

1. Why are we going to court at this time?

• Government is breaking the language rules to keep European workers out of Canada. Priority goes to the English , Irish and French  
• Government will not allow over 95% of workers from Portugal, Italy and other European counties to become immigrants  
• Beginning on January 1, 2015 , government will use the language exam to make it even more difficult for Portuguese, Italians and other Europeans  to  be legal workers or immigrants  in Canada

2. Will we succeed?

• There are never guarantees of success. But if do not push hard then we are guaranteed to have more delay from government … this will mean that more Portuguese , Italians etc will be removed from Canada
• The government has lost several Court cases recently. We have support from the team that has won in Court and defeated the government  

3. How long will it take?

• The bad news is that a court case can be slow. It may take many months, even years, to get a final order

While the court case is proceeding we will continue to apply for visas "
Dr. Richard Boraks, June 3 2014