Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has put a
two-year freeze on applications for parent and grandparent immigration files in
an attempt to “reduce the backlog.” He’s also adding a 10-year “super-visa”
that would allow those relatives to come in and out of Canada to visit
relatives and help with childcare, provided they have private medical insurance
and their sponsoring relative meets a certain income threshold. The problem
here is that cuts to immigration applications haven’t helped to fix the backlog
when it was tried in 2000 and in 2008, and the auditor general pointed that out
in her 2009 report. So why does Jason Kenney think that cutting levels this
time will help? It’s a good question.
One of the veteran public servants who
oversees the auditor general’s office has resigned in protest over the appointment of the unilingual
Michael Ferguson.
Here’s more about why the Commons access to information, privacy and ethics committee’s demand that the CBC turn over its un-redacted ATIP
documents is a big deal. Basically, because the case is before the Federal
Court of Appeals, Parliament’s interference could affect the possibility of a
fair trial, which is why the sub judice
convention exists in the first place.
Stéphane Dion reminds us why an elected
Senate would be a very bad thing (hint: gridlock becomes a way of life).
In NDP leadership news, Romeo Saganash has
“clarified” his comments on the Sherbrooke Declaration to better conform to NDP
orthodoxy rather than the rule of law, while Paul Dewar says they need a
“Western strategy.” Colby Cosh of Maclean’s
weighs in on the “western strategy” mania here.
And that Conservative private member’s bill
on requiring unions to disclose their financial information has been deemed out
of order and dumped. The MP still has the opportunity to use his slot in the order
of precedence for a different bill, so we’ll have to wait to see what that will
be.
Why you can trust Xtra
