Feds to revoke thousands of citizenships in historic sweep

BY TOBI COHEN, POSTMEDIA NEWS DECEMBER 9, 2011

In what's being dubbed the biggest citizenship fraud sweep in Canadian history, the federal government is set to crack down on 4,700 more people believed to have obtained citizenship or permanent resident status illegally. Pictured, Jason Kenny, federal minister of immigration, speaks to the Chamber of Commerce in Calgary.

Photograph by: Grant Black, Calgary Herald

OTTAWA — In what's being dubbed the biggest citizenship fraud sweep in Canadian history, the federal government is set to crack down on 4,700 more people believed to have obtained citizenship or permanent resident status illegally.

The announcement comes six months after the government moved to strip 1,800 people of their Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status for the same reasons. Up until this year, Canada had revoked just 67 citizenships since the Citizenship Act came into force in 1947.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is expected to make the announcement that "Canadian citizenship is not for sale" on Friday, Postmedia News has learned.

He will unveil the details in Montreal where Nizar Zakka — an immigration consultant suspected of fraud — was arrested in 2009. Zakka is suspected of providing would-be Lebanese immigrants with false evidence — indicating that they were living in Quebec when they were not — to support their cases for permanent residency.

He's also accused of filing or contributing to the filing of 861 false tax returns for at least 380 clients between 2004 and 2007. The returns allegedly were then used to claim refunds for child care and property taxes as well as the provincial sales-tax credit.

The bulk of the citizenship fraud cases are said to be linked to Zakka as well as Halifax immigration consultant Hassan Al-Awaid, who was charged in March with more than 50 citizenship fraud-related offences.

The cases are also tied to a third consultant from Mississauga, Ont., west of Toronto, who remains under investigation, according to a government source who noted the others were brought to light thanks to the new citizenship fraud tip line.

Unveiled in September, the tip line already has fielded 5,366 calls.

Letters are currently being sent to the 6,500 people from 100 countries indicating that Canada is revoking their citizenship or permanent resident status due to fraud.

This comes following a lengthy investigation by the RCMP and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

Alleged fraudsters, the majority of whom are not currently living in Canada, have up to 60 days to appeal the decision in Federal Court before cabinet moves to void their passports and strip them of all rights and privileges.

According to Citizenship and Immigration, to maintain permanent resident status a person must reside in Canada for at least two years within a five-year period. Permanent residents seeking citizenship must show proof that they've lived in Canada for at least three of the last four years before applying.

At the time of Al-Awaid's arrest, Kenney said he was suspected of helping people "create the appearance they were residing in Canada in order to keep their permanent resident status, and ultimately attempt to acquire citizenship."

He said investigators had linked Al-Awaid to 1,100 applicants and their dependents, 76 of whom had obtained Canadian citizenship.

He noted that many people were prevented from "fraudulently obtaining citizenship" as a result of the investigation.

The government has been taking action against citizenship fraud for some time. The Cracking Down on Crooked Consultants Act, which imposes tough new penalties for immigration consultants convicted of fraud, including fines and/or prison, is now law in Canada.

tcohen(at)postmedia.com

Twitter.com/tobicohen

Lorne Gunter: Time to crack down on fraudulent immigrants

Canadians are generous people, but have no tolerance or patience for people who don’t play by the rules and who lie or cheat to become a Canadian citizen. The government will apply the full strength of Canadian law to those who have obtained citizenship fraudulently.”

With those blunt words, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced Friday in Montreal that his department and the RCMP have gathered evidence on as many as 6,500 new citizens or permanent residents who acquired their immigration status fraudulently. Mr. Kenney intends to strip them of their status and deport them, if they are in the country. He added, “Canadian citizenship is not for sale.”

Mr. Kenney and the police allege that paid immigration consultants have been helping people pretend to meet the residency requirements needed to obtain citizenship or permanent-resident status. Before being accepted, an applicant must have lived full-time in Canada for three of the previous four years. To maintain their status, they must show proof they have lived here at least two out of every five years thereafter. Unscrupulous consultants, Mr. Kenney suspects, have been helping thousands of applicants produce fake evidence that they have been living in Canada.

Many of the case of suspected fraud revolve around two consultants, Nizar Zakka of Montreal, who was arrested in 2009, and Hassan Al-Awaid of Halifax, who was charged last March. Mr. Zakka is suspected of providing would-be immigrants with false evidence that they were living in Quebec. He was also accused of helping file nearly 900 false tax returns, allegedly so absentee citizens could qualify for tax credits for child care, property tax and provincial sales tax.

Thousands to be stripped of Canadian citizenship in historic fraud sweep

Not surprisingly, many of Mr. Zakka’s allegedly fraudulent clients are Lebanese who are suspected of never having lived in Canada long enough to acquire citizenship legitimately. Why is not surprising to me that so many Lebanese are suspected? Because of the way so many suddenly remembered their devotion to Canada when war broke out in their country between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

When the bullets began whizzing and the bombs and missiles began falling, hundreds of Canadian “citizens” who hadn’t lived here for a decade or more pulled their passports out of the drawers they’d stuffed them in and started waving them around like “Get out of Hell free” cards demanding Ottawa rescue them (at Ottawa’s expense).

Many of these Canadians of convenience had come here in the 1980s and 1990s, during Lebanon’s long civil war, only long enough to obtain citizenship, then the minute they qualified and the fighting back home subsided, they beetled off to Lebanon never again to live in Canada or contribute to Canadian society. Yet once they were caught in the crossfire between Israel and radical Islamists, they insisted Ottawa send ships and planes to ferry them to safety. Then they complained the rescue wasn’t happening fast enough and, finally, were indignant about the conditions on the ships that were sent.

That’s the kind of insincere citizen Mr. Kenney is targeting. He is right that Canadians are a generous lot. We already accept more immigrants per capita than any other developed nation – more than 250,000 a year, heading towards 300,000 a year over the coming decade. So it does not make us mean-spirited or xenophobic to revoke the citizenship or permanent-resident status of a few thousand applicants who, in his words, lied and cheated to get into Canada. Indeed, doing so preserves the value of Canadian citizenship not only for people born here, but also for those new Canadians who took the time to go through the proper procedures to come here legally – a process that can take up to seven years.

For far too long, Ottawa has been cavalier about granting citizenship, refugee status and permanent residency. It hasn’t screened visa applications adequately. It has accepted at face value too many bogus stories about persecution back home. It has made little effort to deport people ordered expelled by the courts, including hundreds of violent criminals. It has seldom prosecuted people smugglers and has permitted people granted refugee status to travel freely back and forth between Canada and the homelands in which they insisted their lives were in danger. Ottawa has even done a poor job of encouraging new Canadians to adopt this nation’s values. No longer.

Under Mr. Kenney and the Tories, the visa-screening process is to be beefed up, the refugee determination system is being streamlined to help better sort true refugees from sob-story applicants, the immigration consultant industry is being cleaned up and citizenship training has been changed to emphasize the importance in Canada of the rule of law, equality between the sexes and social tolerance. This is not proof of bigotry and vindictiveness by the Tories. Rather it is, finally, a recognition that if Canadian citizenship is to mean anything, it cannot be given away like Halloween candy.

National Post

Follow Lorne on Twitter @lornegunter

B.C. panel to review how to attract skilled workers, investors

Premier Christy Clark announced this week the creation of a task force to review the system under which skilled immigrants and foreign investors come to B.C. and Canada.

Led by Richmond-Steveston MLA John Yap, the nine-member group will consist of community and business leaders and will review the Provincial Nominee Program, the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class, and the Federal Immigrant Investor Program.

The task force will assess the efficiency of each program, and look at how to improve the federal government's responsiveness to immigration needs throughout Western Canada, the premier said in Vancouver Thursday.

"We've laid out an ambitious plan to create jobs in the BC Jobs Plan and we will need skilled immigrants to help fill more than one million job openings expected over the next decade," Clark said, noting that current B.C. residents are expected to account for only two-thirds of those positions.

"We don't know yet how we're going to fill those jobs," she said.

The goal of the task force is to assess the current system and find ways to attract more skilled workers every year.

To do that, task force members will meet with employers, industry and sector associations, settlement service providers, community associations and other relevant groups, Clark said.

"This is a province and a country that was built on immigration, and that hasn't changed."

Clark said she'd like to see the elimination of federal caps on the Provincial Nominee Program, which channels educated, experienced, skilled workers swiftly into the economy and accelerates the process to secure permanent residency.

The group's first meeting is scheduled for next week, Yap said.

"They're going to be busy over the next couple of months."

He said members of the team, which also includes former MP Stockwell Day, are participating on a volunteer basis and the government will cover the incidental costs of the initiative, which aren't expected to exceed $100,000.

A final public report will be submitted to the premier by March 31, 2012.

CONFIRMED MEMBERS OF TASK FORCE

. John Yap, chair - Richmond-Steveston MLA.

. Tung Chan (Richmond) - Former CEO SUCCESS/Chinese community leader.

. Stockwell Day (Penticton) - Government relations consultant/former minister/MP.

. Yuen Pau Woo (North Vancouver) - CEO Asia Pacific Foundation.

. Grace Wong (Vancouver) - Assistant dean, UBC/vice-chair SUCCESS.

. Tim McEwan (Prince George) - CEO, Initiatives Prince George.

. Suki Badh (Richmond) - College instructor/South Asian community leader.

. Michael Hwang (New Westminster) - Principal lawyer of Hwang & Company/founder and partner of Amicus Lawyers.

. Narindarpal Singh Kang (Vancouver) - Founder, Kang and Company Law Firm, specializing in immigration law.

Evan Duggan, Vancouver Sun

eduggan@vancouversun.com

Canada Immigration Visas Available for Physiotherapists, Psychologists & Many Other Occupations.

Canadian Government continues to accept applications under its popular Federal Skilled Worker program (FSWP) currently in 25 of the 29 occupations listed in current Ministerial Instructions. Quotas for some of the open occupations are filling up faster than others.

The Federal Skilled Worker program (FSWP) is the most popular Canadian immigration program since many years, as it provides permanent residence visas to skilled professionals from across the world, based on their skills in factors like education, occupation, language abilities, etc. The program is referred to as 'Points system' among many groups, as the selection is based on the points score in each of the 6 factors and their ability to achieve the minimum pass marks (points) - set at 67 out of possible 100.

Canada has been a popular destination for immigrants from all parts of the world, so much so that it receives many times more applications than it can process or accept in any year. Canada has accepted about 250 - 280,000 immigrants annually since past many years, and the backlog grew to over a million in 2008. The resulting backlog of applications, led to increased processing time ranging from a few months to 7 years in some countries.

With a view to overcome the challenges posed by the increasing processing period, one of the new measures introduced by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) in 2008 was Ministerial Instructions (MI). The MI, among other things limited the number of applications to be accepted for processing each year, by restricting the occupations eligible for processing. This meant that, Applicant with experience in a certain limited number of occupations were able to apply under the FSWP. Exemption was made for people already in Canada as Students or Workers and for applicants with Arranged Employment Opinion.

The first set of MI (MI-1) was introduced on November 28, 2008 (effective from February 27, 2008). The current set of MI (MI-3) introduced on July 1, 2011 carries substantial changes from MI-1, e.g. it allows only 29 occupations to apply under FSWP. Moreover, there are caps (quotas) for no. of applications to be accepted for processing overall (10,000) and in each occupation (500). It should be noted that the above applicants do have to score sufficient points to qualify.

Note: A subsequent MI-4 allowed international Ph.D. students to apply for permanent residence under FSWP, but left the other aspects of the FSWP unchanged.

It has been observed that some of occupations fill up faster than others. As of December 8, 2011, caps were reached for 4 of the 29 occupations. This means that applicants in these occupations can no longer apply under the FSWP, till the cap is re-set in July, 2012.

However, the other 25 occupations are open as of now. Some of them like Physicians and Dentists are likely to be the next, with 350 applications already accepted by CIC. Applicants in these occupations should act promptly to ensure a position in the processing lot for this year.

Some of the other open occupations include:
Managers: Oilfields, Gas fields, Mine/ Quarry, Forestry, Fishing operations, etc.
Healthcare Professionals: Physiotherapists, Psychologists, Radiation Technologists, Dental professionals, Practical Nurses, etc.
Others: Architects, Biologists, Social Workers, Cooks/ Chefs, Electricians, Plumbers, Welders, etc.

Many Rich Chinese Consider Leaving

BEIJING—More than half of China's millionaires are either considering emigrating or have already taken steps to do so, according to a survey that builds on similar findings earlier this year, highlighting worries among the business elite about their quality of life and financial prospects, despite the country's fast-paced growth.

The U.S. is the most popular emigration destination, according to the survey of 980 Chinese people with assets of more than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) published on Saturday by Bank of China and wealth researcher Hurun Report.

While growth has slowed, China's economic performance is still the envy of the Western world: It registered annual gross domestic product growth of 9.1% in the third quarter, and the International Monetary Fund has forecast growth of 9.5% for all of 2011.

Enlarge Image

Concerns are mounting, however, that China's growth could be derailed by a raft of problems, including high inflation, a bubbly real-estate sector and a sharp slowdown in external demand.

Many Chinese who have profited most from the country's growth also express increasing concerns in private about social issues such as China's one-child policy, food safety, pollution, corruption, poor schooling, and a weak legal system.

Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder and publisher of Hurun Report, said the most common reason cited by respondents who were emigrating was their children's education, followed by a desire for better medical treatment, and the fear of pollution in China.

Mark Ralston/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A man walks past an advertising display at a luxury mall in Shanghai. Thousands of rich Shanghai residents have turned China's most cosmopolitan city into the luxury capital of a country that is expected to become the world's largest market for the sector between 2012 and 2015.

"There's also an element of insurance being taken out here," he said, citing concerns about the economic and political environment.

He cautioned, though, that it was unclear if the survey results signaled capital flight as many high-net-worth individuals who were emigrating also said they were keeping much of their money invested in China.

China maintains capital controls that make it hard for rich Chinese to move their money out of the country, but there are substantial loopholes in the system.

Some economists say they have detected signs of large capital outflows in recent months, likely driven by a decline in global risk appetite and expectations of slower yuan appreciation.

A research report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch's strategy team in Hong Kong last month cited "hot-money outflows" as one of four systemic risks that could lead to a hard landing for China's economy. It said that a sign of such outflows were record gambling revenue in the gambling enclave of Macau, a former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong, where many mainland Chinese go to gamble.

In another indication of the jittery mood among China's rich, several Western embassies have also noted a marked increase this year in the number of applications for investment visas, a category that allows people to immigrate if they invest a certain amount of money, according to diplomats.

There is evidence, too, of an uptick in the number of Chinese people buying high-end properties in major Western cities, especially London, Sydney and New York, according to property analysts.

Another survey published in April by China Merchants Bank and Bain & Co. showed that almost 60% of high-net-worth individuals in China had either arranged for, or were considering emigration. Of those, more than 20% had already completed their immigration applications, or made the decision to apply, according to that survey, which covered 2,600 high-net-worth individuals.

China Merchants Bank and Bain estimated that in 2010 there were 500,000 people in China with "individual investable" assets valued at 10 million yuan and 20,000 people with 100 million yuan or more.

Bank of China and Hurun estimated there were 960,000 people with "personal assets" of at least 10 million yuan, and 60,000 people with 100 million yuan or more.

Their survey, conducted in May to September, covered 18 major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing, Dalian and Suzhou, and interviewed respondents with an average age of 42 and average personal assets of 60 million yuan.

The survey showed that 46% of respondents were considering emigrating, while an additional 14% had either already emigrated or filed immigration applications.

Mr. Hoogewerf said respondents with assets of 100 million or more were even more inclined to emigrate, with 55% considering leaving China, and 21% already living overseas or having filed applications.

The top destination among those emigrating was the U.S., accounting for 40%, followed by Canada with 37%, Singapore with 14% and Europe with 11%, the survey showed.

One-third of respondents said they had assets overseas, and an additional 28% said they planned to invest abroad in the next three years. Half of those with overseas assets listed their children's education as the reason, while 32% cited emigration.

The U.S. was the most popular destination for their investments, accounting for 42%, and property was the most popular type of investment, accounting for 51%, according to the survey.

—Tom Orlik contributed to this article.

Write to Jeremy Page at jeremy.page@wsj.com

Super Visa out of reach for many Canadians

By NOUMAN KHALIL

Print this article

Email this article

As the new Parent and Grandparent Super Visa kicked off Dec 1, its simple but 'out-of-reach' and expensive criteria are beginning to worry many Canadians seeking to invite parents and grandparents.Putting a two-year temporary pause on receiving fresh parental and grandparental sponsorship applications, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney last month introduced the 10-year multiple Super Visa to reduce the backlog.
The procedure is simple and applicants can get the Super Visa in as short a period as eight weeks. However, it's expensive and out of reach for the average Canadian.
To get this 10-year multiple entry pass, an applicant has to be a parent or grandparent of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident; provide a written commitment of financial support from their child or grandchild in Canada, including the requisite proof; undergo the Immigration medical examination; submit proof they have purchased comprehensive Canadian medical insurance, valid for at least one year; and satisfy the visa officer that they meet all other standard admissibility criteria.
Of all conditions, the current skyrocketing premiums of medical insurance, especially in Ontario, worries Canadians the most.
"Yes, it (higher premiums) is a concern, but at this time the best remedy is to go for a larger deductible," Suresh Gupta, the GTA's famous immigration consultant, told Focus.
Gupta said the sole purpose of the Super Visa is to protect the Canadian healthcare system.
"A large portion of our provincial budget goes towards healthcare and the leaders need to balance it out. They don't mind people coming in as long as they have their own health coverage.
"If you're asking me 'it's fair'. Personally, as a Canadian, I believe it is fair," said Gupta.
The Parent and Grandparent Super Visa is one element of Phase I of the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification.

Pre-existing whammy
Insurance companies also do not cover any pre-existing health conditions such as blood pressure, diabetes or emergencies related to those conditions - yet another concern for people seeking to invite their elders.
Announcing the details in November, Kenney said the action was taken to cut the backlog, reduce wait times and ensure the parents and grandparents program is sustainable over the long run.
He said in 2012 the government will admit 25,000 parents and grandparents to Canada, a 60 per cent increase as compared to 15,500 in 2010.
Asked to comment on current wait times, particularly in Chandigarh, New Delhi and Islamabad, Gupta said: "Things are moving very fast (in Mississauga office). Even those who have applied in 2009 are getting responses to submit further documentations.
"The minister is testing the waters," Gupta added. "This is going to be a new direction to parental and grandparental cases."
Analysts add that while on the one hand the government is trying to save on the healthcare of seniors, on the other hand it will be losing in the form of seniors' liquidated assets that they usually bring to Canada as immigrants.
They add it will be interesting to see how fast the new measure can reduce the backlog.

Canadian immigration by the numbers

BY TOBI COHEN AND JORDAN PRESS, POSTMEDIA NEWS NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Canada expects to have welcomed about 260,000 immigrants to Canada by the end of this year; that's one of several findings in the annual immigration report, released Wednesday.

Photograph by: Brent Foster/National Post/files, The Conservative government wants to cut down a heavy immigration backlog by capping the number of parents and grandparents of immigrants who can come to Canada

Highlights from Citizenship and Immigration's annual report:

- Canada expects to have welcomed about 260,000 immigrants to Canada by the end of this year;

- Canada admitted 280,681 permanent residents in 2010, an increase of 11.3 per cent over 2009 and the highest level recorded in 50 years;

- Canada welcomed 182,276 foreign workers in 2010, an increase of 2.2 per cent over the previous year;

- The number of international students permitted into Canada in 2010 was up 13 per cent over 2009 to 96,157;

- Canada issued 12,452 temporary resident permits in 2010 to foreigners deemed inadmissible under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act but who offer compelling reasons for special consideration;

- By 2013, such foreign nationals will be required to provide their biometrics as part of a border security initiative;

- The number of asylum claimants fell by 10,000 in 2010, in large part due to the introduction of temporary resident visa requirements for people from the Czech Republic and Mexico;

- Immigration levels for 2012 will remain between 240,000-265,000;

- For the second consecutive year, Canada resettled 12,000 refugees in 2010;

- 26.6 per cent of new immigrants don't know either official language; 57.1 per cent know English, six per cent know French, 10.3 per cent know both;

- Authorities fell shy of processing time targets for family class applicants. Officials expect to meet the 12-month target by March.

Tests now required for language points under Quebec Skilled Worker program

As of December 5^th, new candidates to the Quebec Skilled Worker program who want to receive points for language for French and/or English, will have to submit test results along with their application.

For French, only the following tests are valid:

For English, only the following test is valid:

International English Language Testing System (IELTS)

Only in the case of French can a spouse be awarded points, and in this case he/she must also take a French test from the establishments mentioned above, and submit results along with the principal applicant's results.

This change is not retroactive, so applications received at Quebec Immigration visa offices before December 5th (or postmarked before December 5th) do not need to submit language test scores - in these cases their language proficiency will continue to be evaluated at an interview. However, according to Robert Baril, Quebec Assistant Deputy Minister for Immigration, "[We] suggest that all candidates whose applications were received before December 5th to [also] submit test scores to confirm their language skills in French and English; this can help the candidate and accelerate the processing of their application."

These changes are universal, applying to all applicants, no matter whether they come from a French or English speaking country or not.

The government states that its aim is to standardize testing to make it more fair for all applicants - whereas previously tests were not required and it was left up to individual visa officers to evaluate each candidate at an interview.

The Quebec Skilled Worker program works on a points system, allocated according to training, age, language proficiency, work experience, family characteristics, and other criteria.

Source: canadavisa.com

Canadians more tolerant of immigration levels as doors open wider: study

By: Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press

Posted: 12/5/2011 3:12 PM | Comments: 1 (including replies) | Last Modified: 12/5/2011 9:52 PM

MONTREAL - A new study suggests Canadians have grown more tolerant of the country's immigration levels — even as the number of newcomers has increased over the years.

A poll of 2,020 people, taken for the Institute For Research on Public Policy, found that 58 per cent of Canadians surveyed last year supported the country's level of immigration.

The findings also suggest that Canadians have had positive views of immigration levels for more than a decade.

The results tell a contrary story to one occasionally found in news headlines that suggest Canadians might be increasingly fed up with accommodating newcomers.

There were actually two prominent news stories Monday in Quebec related to disputes over minority accommodations.

Talk TV was exercised over a report on a Montreal-area municipality's decision to remove Christmas and Hanukkah decorations at city hall. A community group had requested to have Islamic symbols erected as well, and the Town of Mount Royal responded by taking down symbols from all religions, save for a Christmas tree.

There was also a report on the city of Gatineau's immigrant guide book, asking newcomers not to take part in honour killings or cook smelly foods.

But the research director for IRPP's diversity, immigration and integration program said while disputes make flashy headlines, they overshadow the many positive stories of integration that are never told.

"We think sometimes these debates are kind of tough in Canada and things are getting worse — but we're in a lot better shape, in all kinds of ways, than a lot of other countries," Leslie Seidle said Monday in Montreal.

"Contrary to many other countries, particularly in western Europe, we have a strong majority who think that the level of immigration we have right now is about right."

The IRPP study cited a 2010 survey that found close to 60 per cent of people in the United Kingdom thought there were too many immigrants in their country. By comparison, less than 20 per cent of Canadians felt the same way.

In the poll taken by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Canadians were also found to be more tolerant of immigrants than people in Italy, Spain, the U.S., France, Netherlands and Germany.

But Canadians' views toward immigrants haven't always been as welcoming.

The study by IRPP, a non-partisan, Montreal-based public policy think-tank, suggests there was a shift in public opinion about a decade ago.

From the late 1970s until the early 1990s, the majority of Canadians held negative attitudes about the country's immigration levels.

Following a shift in the 1990s, Canadians' view of immigration has been more positive than negative since the latter part of that decade.

The country opened its doors to 280,000 immigrants last year and has accepted more than 200,000 newcomers annually since 2000, according to Citizenship and Immigration Department statistics cited in the study. In the mid 1980s, fewer than 100,000 immigrants per year came to Canada.

The report argued that Canadians who support immigration believe that multiculturalism is a source of national pride and creates economic benefits.

The research also found that attitudes about immigration varied by region, though each area had majority support for existing levels.

The Prairies (62.8 per cent), Atlantic Canada (62.5 per cent) and Quebec (61.8 per cent) scored higher than the Canadian average. The other regions, included British Columbia (57.4 per cent), Alberta (54.4 per cent) and Ontario (53.5 per cent).

Seidle was asked whether he was surprised the study found one of the most pro-immigration areas in Quebec, a province that has been at the centre of heated debate over minority accommodations.

He blamed Quebec media for putting too much emphasis on disputes, such as a request a few years ago by a Montreal Jewish community group that a local YMCA frost its windows.

The group no longer wanted its youth to be able to see people wearing revealing clothes as they exercised inside.

"These stories have been blown up," said Seidle, who, for example, added that little adjustments to accommodate diet, dress and days of religious observance are made in schools throughout Montreal every day.

"But maybe we end up paying too much attention to this kind of stuff because it's got conflict underneath it.
"

Immigration Canada