CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Sun. Mar. 28 2010 12:48 PM ET
Ottawa will introduce new legislation this week to fix what it calls a broken refugee system that delays legitimate asylum claims while allowing bogus claimants to remain in Canada through a years-long appeals process.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said he will introduce a bill Tuesday that will offer faster protection for real refugees while scuttling the claims of those who use the refugee system to fast-track their way into Canada.
While he declined to reveal many specifics about the legislation, Kenney told CTV's Question Period that it will "streamline" the appeals process through which claimants who have been turned down by the Refugee Board endeavour to have their claims approved.
"It's a balanced reform," Kenney said in an interview from Montreal. "It will speed up the system and give faster protection to real refugees while sending the message to the bogus claimants that you're not going to be able to use the system in Canada anymore. We're going to remove you a whole lot more quickly."
According to Kenney, his ministry faces a backlog of 60,000 asylum claims, which has led to a 19-month waiting period for a hearing or a decision.
"That's terrible for real victims of persecution," Kenney said.
The minister said the slow-moving legal immigration system attracts false claimants who use the asylum system to "jump the queue" and gain entry to Canada "through the back door."
According to Kenney, 58 per cent of asylum claimants are found not to need protection and are either rejected by the Refugee Board, or withdraw their claims.
He pointed specifically to one "European democracy" that has become the number one source country for asylum claims, saying that 97 per cent of those who say they need protection withdraw or abandon their claims. Only three of 2,500 cases from that country that went before the Refugee Board last year were accepted, he said.
While Kenney did not name the country in question in Sunday's interview, earlier this month he said Hungary has become Canada's number one source country for refugee claims, at several hundred per month.
"This is telling me that Canada, with the highest number of asylum claims in the developed world, has become a destination of choice for false refugee claimants and it's simply burdening the system," Kenney said. "Each one of those claims can cost us as much as $50,000 and four-and-a-half years before they even exhaust all of the appeals under the current, totally dysfunctional system."
Kenney also said Sunday he will be introducing legislation later this spring to crack down on dishonest immigration consultants.
"We intend to come forward with legislative changes to crack down on the bogus, unscrupulous consultants and advisers who counsel people to commit fraud, who often take money and provide no services, and many of whom counsel immigrants looking for status in Canada to make false refugee claims."
Thriving Toronto tech firm shows wisdom of hiring immigrant talent
Samtack Computer Inc. doesn't believe Canadian experience is the best thing since sliced bread. 90 per cent of this tech firm's workforce is comprised of immigrants or folk trained outside Canada -- a hiring practice that has paid off big time.
3/26/2010 6:00:00 AM By: Nestor E. Arellan
Source: http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=56957
"Help wanted. Canadian experience not necessary".
For many immigrants applying for jobs in Canada --be it as a factory worker or an IT professional -- those words are but a dream.
Unless, of course they happen to apply with Samtack Computer Inc. where having "Canadian experience" on your résumé doesn't mean a thing.
As a job qualification Fouad Jazouli doesn't believe Canadian experience counts for much. "I respect it, but set greater store on a person's attitude," said Jazouli, vice-president of marketing and operations for the firm.
Jazouli is originally from Lebanon.
Based in the Greater Toronto Area, in the city of Markham, Ont., Samtack is one of the largest computer and parts distributing companies in Canada. It counts Wal-Mart, Future Shop and Best Buy among its clients. More than 90 per cent of its workforce -- from factory floor to the board room -- is comprised of immigrants who've been educated and trained outside Canada.
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For nearly 20 years now the company's hiring strategy has been to tap into skills of immigrants rather than turn away job applicants because they lack Canadian experience that many hiring managers seek from applicants.
The strategy has worked very well for Samtack, according to Royson Ng, president of the company and himself an immigrant from Malaysia. In the past nine years, the firm's revenues soared more than six-fold from $20 million to $130 million.
The icing on the cake was when the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) recently awarded Samtack the RBC Immigrant Advantage Award in recognition of the company's efforts to hire newcomers. The Council's mandate is to create and champion initiatives that better integrate skilled immigrants in the Greater Toronto labour market
Living the Canadian dream
"I am living the Canadian dream and would like to give other newcomers a chance to achieve it to," said Ng whose first job upon landing in Canada, 19 years ago, was working as a gas jockey at the age of 32. The going was tough. Ng's wife was pregnant and his salary barely paid for their needs.
Ng managed to snag a position as a salesperson at Furture Shop. Within three months he was a manager in training, another three months later he was manager of the branch. Within two years, Ng became regional manager for Future Shop. Eight years later he left the electronics store to take up a vice-president's position with Samtack.
"I know immigrants have it in them to succeed. That's why we give them the opportunity and training to achieve that," he said.
Ng said his company has 115 employees and about 90 per cent come from countries such as China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Africa and Malaysia.
Immigrants, typically, are hardworking because they come to Canada with a strong focus on getting a better life and providing for themselves and their families, he said. "They also usually have a great attitude, and you need that to succeed."
3/26/2010 6:00:00 AM By: Nestor E. Arellan
Source: http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=56957
"Help wanted. Canadian experience not necessary".
For many immigrants applying for jobs in Canada --be it as a factory worker or an IT professional -- those words are but a dream.
Unless, of course they happen to apply with Samtack Computer Inc. where having "Canadian experience" on your résumé doesn't mean a thing.
As a job qualification Fouad Jazouli doesn't believe Canadian experience counts for much. "I respect it, but set greater store on a person's attitude," said Jazouli, vice-president of marketing and operations for the firm.
Jazouli is originally from Lebanon.
Based in the Greater Toronto Area, in the city of Markham, Ont., Samtack is one of the largest computer and parts distributing companies in Canada. It counts Wal-Mart, Future Shop and Best Buy among its clients. More than 90 per cent of its workforce -- from factory floor to the board room -- is comprised of immigrants who've been educated and trained outside Canada.
Related stories
Canadian IT skills shortage likely to get worse, experts say
Free online game trains managers to unlock immigrant talent
New interactive games with workplace e-learning fun for Canadian employees
For nearly 20 years now the company's hiring strategy has been to tap into skills of immigrants rather than turn away job applicants because they lack Canadian experience that many hiring managers seek from applicants.
The strategy has worked very well for Samtack, according to Royson Ng, president of the company and himself an immigrant from Malaysia. In the past nine years, the firm's revenues soared more than six-fold from $20 million to $130 million.
The icing on the cake was when the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) recently awarded Samtack the RBC Immigrant Advantage Award in recognition of the company's efforts to hire newcomers. The Council's mandate is to create and champion initiatives that better integrate skilled immigrants in the Greater Toronto labour market
Living the Canadian dream
"I am living the Canadian dream and would like to give other newcomers a chance to achieve it to," said Ng whose first job upon landing in Canada, 19 years ago, was working as a gas jockey at the age of 32. The going was tough. Ng's wife was pregnant and his salary barely paid for their needs.
Ng managed to snag a position as a salesperson at Furture Shop. Within three months he was a manager in training, another three months later he was manager of the branch. Within two years, Ng became regional manager for Future Shop. Eight years later he left the electronics store to take up a vice-president's position with Samtack.
"I know immigrants have it in them to succeed. That's why we give them the opportunity and training to achieve that," he said.
Ng said his company has 115 employees and about 90 per cent come from countries such as China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Africa and Malaysia.
Immigrants, typically, are hardworking because they come to Canada with a strong focus on getting a better life and providing for themselves and their families, he said. "They also usually have a great attitude, and you need that to succeed."
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