November 1

Like Groundhog Day, November 1 always bring renewed, if misplaced, hope.

Immigration law stipulates that the Minister, on November 1, announces Canada’s new immigration plans.

Like Groundhog Day, there is immediate wall to wall media analysis as to whether or not the Minister saw his policy shadow.

After the dust settles, every interest group in the country looks for meaning in the Minister’s plans.

Minister Hussan today, November 1, 2017, repeated the worn “skilled workers are necessary” mantra. He has, yet again, built expectations in Toronto’s trades sectors.

And then the Minister, like the Ground Hog, will go back into his hole. The GTA expectations will crash. The illegal workers will continue to flood in and find illegal jobs.

This skilled trades worker farce will continue until Ottawa follows Queen’s Park tradition of dealing with linguistic reality. In Ontario, workers in many trades can pass trades exams in any number of languages. Driver’s license exams can be written in 21 languages.

Given Ottawa’s slavish commitment to 19th century English-French visa quotas, November 1 will continue to be Immigration Ground Hog Day for Ontario.

Richard Boraks, November 1 2017

Jason Kenney

www.corriere.com/index.php/en/past-issues-2/26-english-articles/1843-alberta-minister-of-disaster-in-immigration-is-on-his-way

• I agree with Corriere Canadese’s assessment of Jason Kenney’s behavior while parading, as Minnie Mouse, on the national stage.

• I disagree with Corriere Canadese that Jason Kenney is right wing. To be right or left wing implies that one has principles.  

Jason Kenney has no principles.

Jason Kenney is the only politician who has ever looked me in the eye and lied.

Kenney is a fraud. A flimflamming used car salesman. A man with no education who plays the glib intellect. An alleged family values guy ripping apart hundreds of thousands of GTA families while finding room for Middle Eastern LGBTQ. An alleged hardnosed, bottom line guy who has never earned a dollar outside of cynically milking the political trough. An alleged free enterpriser hammering Soviet style “command and control” orders to decimate the rule of law in the Toronto trades sector. The man who won the 2011 election by delivering Toronto but lost the 2015 election by taking Torontonians for fools.

I don’t care what he does in Alberta. I’m just happy that failed in his manic drive to take over the federal party.  

Richard Boraks, October 25 2017

Hello Ottawa… Lisbon calling

Portugal’s National Assembly is, this week, debating problems in Portugal’s overseas offices, including in Canada.

Portugal was stung by recent comments from Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s Immigration Minister. Hussen blamed Portugal and Italy for their unwillingness to sign reciprocal agreements with Canada allowing young Italians and Portuguese to live and work in Canada.

Portugal reacted quickly. Senior officials from Lisbon and Brussels came to Canada. They assessed the situation. They are openly discussing the issue. They will fix the problem.

Portugal may be a small country. But, like the British and French, it has developed the self-confidence that comes with managing an Empire. An Empire cannot allow its good name to be sullied. A good name is protected by fixing problems quietly and expeditiously, one at a time.   

Minister Hussen’s public rebuke of Rome and Lisbon reflects colonial insecurity. Rather than simply acknowledge that it will take time to fix the decades old problem of overstay workers in Ontario, Hussen publically tried to diminish Rome and Lisbon on the collateral IEC issue. A cheap shot.

In due course:

• Rome and Lisbon will resolve the IEC matter
• Ottawa will not resolve the overstay worker issue

The Empires’ reputations will be intact.

The colony will keep whining.

Richard Boraks, October 25 2017

Picture #1

José CesárioSeguir

25/10 às 12:36 · 

As condições de atendimento ao público na nossa rede consular agravam-se de forma preocupante um pouco por todo o Mundo...

Lisboa, 25 out (Lusa) – Os deputados do PSD questionaram hoje o Governo sobre o agravamento das dificuldades de atendimento em muitos consulados e pretendem saber quais as medidas que serão tomadas para resolver esta questão que afeta sobretudo a diáspora portuguesa.
Numa pergunta enviada ao Ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Augusto Santos Silva, os deputados do PSD eleitos pelo círculo da Emigração – José Cesário, Carlos Gonçalves e Carlos Páscoa Gonçalves - alertaram que nos últimos meses tornou-se evidente “o agravamento das dificuldades de atendimento em grande parte dos postos da rede consular portuguesa um pouco por todo o mundo”.
Os parlamentares sociais-democratas querem saber quantos funcionários foram contratados durante o ano de 2017 para os serviços técnicos e administrativos da rede consular portuguesa e, ainda, quantos deverão ser contratados até ao fim do ano.
Além disso, pretendem saber qual o ritmo em que está a ser processada a reparação dos equipamentos fixos e móveis de recolha de dados biométricos (PEP) que se encontram avariados nos postos consulares.
Os deputados questionaram também como será desenvolvida a experiência dos novos espaços do cidadão e qual o número de casos atendidos nos que foram instalados em Paris, em França, e em São Paulo, no Brasil.
Também pediram esclarecimentos sobre a solução para resolver o problema do serviço consular em Santos, no Brasil, na sequência da morte do cônsul honorário.
Os deputados do PSD referiram que os exemplos mais evidentes do agravamento das dificuldades no atendimento nos consulados, que motivaram “protestos de diverso tipo nos últimos dias”, situam-se em países como o Brasil, o Reino Unido, a Alemanha, a França, os Estados Unidos, o Canadá, a África do Sul, Timor-Leste, entre muitos outros.
De acordo com os parlamentares, nestes casos “acumulam-se situações de carência de funcionários com avarias de diversos equipamentos fundamentais para o serviço consular”.
“O Governo tem divulgado sucessivos anúncios de contratação de novos recursos humanos e de novas valências técnicas para a rede consular, sem que, na prática, se verifique a concretização de tais medidas, com evidente prejuízo para milhares de utentes dos postos, que se veem impossibilitados de tratar de assuntos urgentes para as suas vidas pessoais”, sublinharam os deputados do PSD.
Ações violentas de um grupo de jovens que tentou forçar a entrada na embaixada portuguesa em Díli, por alegado descontentamento com a demora no processamento dos seus pedidos de nacionalidade, obrigaram ao encerramento da missão diplomática na segunda-feira. Fonte diplomática disse à Lusa que já na semana passada um grupo de jovens tentou forçar a sua entrada na embaixada e que nos últimos dias tinham circulado mensagens nas redes sociais contra a missão diplomática.
A tensão junto à embaixada deveu-se ao elevado volume de pedidos de nacionalidade portuguesa, algo que é acessível a qualquer timorense nascido até 19 de maio de 2002, véspera da data em que Timor-Leste restaurou a sua independência. A embaixada já voltou a funcionar normalmente na terça-feira.

Italian immigration and the GTA economy

The below Corriere Canadese article should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the survival of the GTA .

www.corriere.com/index.php/immigrazione/1790-immigrazione-continua-la-fuga-dall-italia

• The difference between the Toronto of 1950 and today is the post war Italian immigration wave

• The only way to stop Toronto’s rapid decline into 3rd world infrastructure paralysis is an Italian immigration tsunami

The good news is that the Italians are available.

So what are we waiting for?

Richard Boraks, October 20 2017

Trump 800,000

Trudeau   0

Ottawa has a big immigration problem.

The American decision to legalize 800,000  undocumented young people while severely cutting refugees quotas  has put a gun to Ottawa’s head on immigration policy.

The western world is dividing into two sides on immigration. Ottawa has to choose sides.

On the one hand we have England and the US. After Brexit and Trump, the English speaking Group of 5 is walking away from 30 years of mass, cheap undocumented workers and alleged refugees. The English speaking world is not anti-immigration. It is against the counterproductive chaos of illegal and poorly vetted immigration. Basically, the English speaking world is going back to pre 1980’s law and order immigration.

Meanwhile after 30 years of well-regulated borders, Europe is being bullied by Germany into accepting mass, uncontrolled migration of cheap labour from both within Europe and from Africa/ Asia.  

So the question is: Will Ottawa join the Group of 5 or Germany?

My own feeling is that Ottawa will officially refuse to choose sides. Instead we will hear fairy tales about Canada continuing on a “successful middle path”.

We will see Trudeau assuring Gutierres, Renzi and the Group of 5 that Canada has a fair, balanced, open and carefully vetted immigration policy. Later this year, we may even hear some fiction about Ottawa studying the undocumented worker “opportunity”.   

In reality, Ottawa’s middle path will be code for staying its course. This means that:

• Ottawa will continue to provide immigration “Law and Order” for its chosen few from France, England and their former colonies

• The rest, including Italians and Portuguese, will fight for scraps as they face apartheid conditions in the GTA’s 500,000 strong undocumented labour force

Thank you Ottawa .

Richard Boraks, 14 September 2017

Immigration as an art form

www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2017/09/10/customer-service-a-new-concept-for-canadas-immigration-department.html

The above Toronto star article finally explains the relationship between good immigration public policy and art.  

Ottawa is now working with the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in managing our nation’s immigration process.

About time. Now that senior Immigration bureaucrats have achieved an 85%  client satisfaction rate , it’s time for OCAD to give advice on how design can deal with the other 15%.    

I look forward to the Used Car Dealers Association of Ontario running the refugee program. Or how about the Newfoundland shrimp processors giving advice on the GTA’s undocumented worker file?

And here I was worried that Ottawa was going out of its way to shaft Italian and Portuguese workers. Now I’ll simply call OCAD and design a solution.

Thank you Ottawa.

Richard Boraks, 12 September 2017