*A great way to preserve french Euro-Canadian ethnic makeup and heritage as Euro-Canadians are quickly becoming a minority and Quebec may be the last bastion in the future of core Euro-Canadian culture in Canada!*

 

 Quebec will require economic immigrants to speak French before arriving: Legault

 

 The Canadian Press 

Published Friday, May 26, 2023

 

 

 

 

Months after saying that accepting more than 50,000 immigrants a year would be “suicidal” for Quebec, the province’s premier is considering increasing the number of immigrants who arrive in the province to 60,000 a year.

Premier François Legault said that will be possible after an immigration reform announced Thursday, which will require the vast majority of people who come through the province's economic immigration system to speak French before they arrive. 

"From the moment we are able to, because there's real openness on the part of the federal government, say that the increase is only francophones, or people who have mastered French, that completely changes the situation," he told reporters Thursday in Quebec City. 

Legault said the potential rise in immigration would come entirely from an increase in the number of people accepted through the Quebec-controlled economic immigration stream.

Sixty-five per cent of immigrants to Quebec come through the economic stream, which is controlled by the province, with the rest coming through the federally-controlled family reunification and refugee programs.

Legault said that when he described increased immigration as suicidal last year, he believed that the federal government would require increases in those two categories if Quebec accepted more economic immigrants.

“I thought, at the time, that the federal government wouldn't permit us to increase only the percentage of economic immigrants and, so far, with the discussion we’ve had with the federal government, they are more than open to accept that, so it's changing the picture completely," he said. 

He said the increase is one of two scenarios the province is considering and that the other scenario would maintain immigration at 50,000 people a year. 

If the increased threshold is adopted, Legault said immigration levels would rise gradually to reach 60,000 people a year by 2027.

The actual number of immigrants the province accepts could be even higher, he said, because that figure doesn't include people who come through a fast-track program for graduates of Quebec universities.

 

However, that program -- which currently requires applicants to have a higher level of French than many workers who would be accepted under the province's new plan and is open to graduates of all Quebec post-secondary institutions -- will be restricted to students who graduate from programs taught in French, or who attended high school in French.

Legault said that as premier of Quebec his primary responsibility is to protect the province's French character.

"Since the last 10, 15, 20 years, we see that the percentage of people speaking French is decreasing, so we have to do something and I think it's important that we request that they speak French before being accepted," he said. 

Christine Fréchette, Quebec's immigration minister, said the reform -- which will go ahead whether the province decides to increase its immigration threshold or not -- will change the way Quebec selects immigrants, moving away from a point system that rewards, but does not require, knowledge of the French language.

The point system will be replaced by a system where certain criteria, such as French-language knowledge, must be met.

While graduates of English-language programs at Quebec universities will no longer be eligible for the fast track, known as the Quebec Experience Program, Fréchette said graduates of those programs who do speak French can still apply as skilled workers. 

"So it's not like the door is closed, it's that there's another path that will have to be taken," she said. 

She said that under the new plan, 96 per cent of people who apply to immigrate to Quebec through the economic stream will be required to speak French.

That would increase the number of all immigrants to Quebec who speak French from 68 per cent in 2022, to 72 per cent by 2027, if the increase is adopted, or 70 per cent by 2027, if the number of immigrants remains at 50,000 people a year.

Legault said he's not yet committed to the increase, adding that he wants to consult with experts first. 

Business groups generally welcomed the reform and the possibility that the province will raise immigration levels.

The Conseil du patronat du Québec, a large employers group, said the reform appears to find a balance between promoting the French language and helping employers find skilled workers.

Opposition parties, however, criticized the reform for failing to address the issue of temporary foreign workers. 

There are around 346,000 temporary residents in the province, including international students, temporary workers and asylum seekers. 

Monsef Derraji, immigration critic for the Opposition Liberals, said the government should make French-language programs available to temporary workers. 

Québec solidaire immigration critic Guillaume Cliche-Rivard said the government needs a plan to encourage immigrants to settle outside of major cities, and should do that by giving temporary workers a path to permanent residence. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2023.

York Catholic school board nixes flying Pride flag

 *Thank God! ✝️ Yet another Catholic School Board in Canada joining others to take a stand against the Communist/Woke/Gay Grooming agenda! 👌*

 

York Catholic school board nixes flying Pride flag

 

 

Straight Pride Flag should be flown

 

 Story by Kevin Connor

 

 

The York Catholic District School Board has voted against flying the Pride flag next month.

On Monday night, trustees voted 6-4 against flying the Pride flag outside the board’s Aurora building during Pride month.

The issue had been discussed for some time and drew many to the public gallery of the meetings at the Catholic Education Centre.

There were those for and against flying the flag and the discussions at times were tense with police even called to some meetings. 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/york-catholic-school-board-nixes-flying-pride-flag/ar-AA1bT60H 

 

This is our Positive response to the Drag Queen Story Time…

 

This is our positive response to the Drag Queen Story Time…Please join us for fun, age appropriate stories & songs to emphasize what a normal child story time should look like. Please share with your family, friends and groups!

 

 

Drag Queen Story-time Protest at Peterborough Public Saturday may 6th 2023 library was a great success!

Drag Queen Story-time Protest at Peterborough Public library  Saturday may 6th 2023 was a great success! 

Not a peace sign, V for Victory the original meaning.

 Sign of a protest supporter behind me reads "Trust the Science, Boys and Girls"

 

 

Was a Great Anti-Drag Queen Story-time Child Abuse protest at the Peterborough Public Library! Had 20 to 30 supporters of children on our side this time I was not alone!

 

 

I would like to thank all the couple dozen people and groups that showed up at the Peterborough Public Library to protest against Drag Queen story time.

Save Canada and various other Christian and non-Christian groups and people. We stood against Communists and Evil in quite a large group for an event in Peterborough! Not sure if we can top that but we sure as Heck will try and keep fighting! Deus Vult! End Child Grooming and Abuse! 

 

 

Communist Propaganda being handed out at Peterborough Public Library.

 

 

 "As the numbers of migrants attempting to cross the border between official ports of entry escalate rapidly, experts predict that more and more people will turn to human smuggling – unless Canada shores up its border enforcement."

 

 Why human smuggling attempts are on the rise on the U.S.-Canada border

 

By Ashleigh Stewart Global News

Posted May 19, 2023 7:00 am

 

 

Akwesasne has long been a gaping hole in the U.S.-Canada border – exploited by smugglers to ship tobacco, guns and, most horrific, people.

Organized crime rings have targeted it for its strategic location, wedged between Quebec, Ontario and New York state. And sometimes, those who believe in its reputation as an undefended portal to a better life end up paying with their own lives.

As the numbers of migrants attempting to cross the border between official ports of entry escalate rapidly, experts predict that more and more people will turn to human smuggling – unless Canada shores up its border enforcement.

In late March, two migrant families – one from Romania and one from India – died in a failed smuggling attempt on the St. Lawrence River. But they were not the first.

In 2015, two men from India drowned and a third was rescued while attempting to be smuggled into the U.S. on the St. Lawrence in a Seadoo when it capsized. Last year, an Indian family died near Emerson, Man., in a failed attempt to cross into the U.S.

Across the 9,000-kilometre stretch of U.S.-Canada border, encounters with migrants are on the rise, statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show.

 

 

 

 

In the year to March 2022, CBP officers recorded 109,535 attempts by migrants to cross into the U.S. Six months into the 2023 fiscal year, there have already been 84,555.

On the Canadian side, migrants typically leave from Cornwall, Ont., or nearby, boarding a boat helmed by a local. From there, it’s about a 15-minute trip to New York through the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne First Nation – an Indigenous reserve split in half by the U.S. and Canadian border.

Cornwall and Akwesasne police, as well as U.S. authorities, are routinely apprehending migrants using smuggling “agencies” – a clandestine operation linking brokers in Toronto and Montreal to locals in Cornwall and Akwesasne to ferry them over the river to a better life.

Locals speak of the smuggling industry with an air of indifference. For many, it’s been going on so long, it’s become part of the fabric of the area.

 

“The town has become apathetic towards it,” the owner of a local cafe, who asked not to be named, says.

“There was a restaurant who was busted for it a few years ago, and people will say, ‘Sure, they were done for smuggling but, you know, they do good shawarma.’”

In 2015, provincial police broke up a gun trafficking ring in Cornwall that operated out of a shawarma restaurant directly across the street from a police station.

Experts have differing ideas on what Canada should do to secure its land borders.

Kelly Sundberg, a retired Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer and now Mount Royal University professor, says the current land border security system – run by the CBSA and the RCMP – is “inefficient,” and the RCMP must be booted off the job for it to improve.

 

“If we’re really serious about people smuggling … the CBSA needs to be really ramped up. It needs resources. And it needs to be held accountable,” he says.

But the people of Akwesasne would disagree. If they had jurisdictional control over their community, local historian and journalist Doug George-Kanentiio says, the people smuggling industry would be “stopped overnight.”

“We’d have a Mohawk militia out on those waters and we know we could stop this ourselves.”

But all agree on one point. With an increasing number of migrants heading for the border, and the recent closure of Quebec’s Roxham Road – once a key route for people hoping to apply for political asylum in Canada – people will put themselves in increasing danger for a shot at a better life.

The Swanton Sector’s human smuggling industry

The St. Lawrence River is a treacherous expanse of water, separating Canada from the U.S., and in parts, Quebec from Ontario. On its northern banks sits Cornwall, Ontario’s easternmost town – which, like Akwesasne, is deeply entrenched in the smuggling industry.

 

Two years before the shawarma restaurant was busted, the Cornwall Regional Task Force busted a massive marijuana ring operating in the area, arresting about 37 people.

Human smugglers are busted, too, from time to time. But they are usually arrested and charged in isolation while the system continues to operate in the background.

In 2018, 39-year-old Louie McDonald of Snye, Que., was found guilty at trial on two counts of manslaughter and a breach of a probation order related to smuggling after two Indian men drowned while he was ferrying them across the St. Lawrence River on his Seadoo in 2015. He was sentenced to 13 months and 25 days in jail.

 

A co-accused in the case, Jacob Wesley Martin from Hogansburg, N.Y., was due to stand trial in 2017 but instead crossed into Canada and was deemed a “fugitive,” according to U.S. court documents. Later, the RCMP arrested him on charges related to the case.

Global’s attempts to track him down via the RCMP, the Correctional Service of Canada, the CBSA and his lawyers yielded no results.

Steve Shand, a Florida man facing smuggling charges linked to the deaths of four migrants who froze to death during a blizzard in Manitoba last January, will stand trial on July 18.

Two people were arrested by the RCMP on human smuggling charges in Cornwall late last year.

 

Global News asked the RCMP headquarters, as well as their Ontario and Quebec divisions, the CBSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, for human smuggling data.

Border security is a shared mandate between the CBSA and RCMP. The CBSA is responsible for enforcing legislation at designated ports of entry, while the RCMP enforces the law between those ports.

The Ontario RCMP said in 2022 in Cornwall, they apprehended 142 people attempting to be smuggled southbound into the U.S., and just seven heading north into Canada. The disparity is likely due to Roxham Road still being operational in 2022.

From January to April 2023, Cornwall RCMP say they have intercepted 20 southbound human smuggling occurrences, with an unconfirmed number of people involved.

The CBSA said between 2016 and 2022, they opened 386 human smuggling criminal investigations across Canada. The agency laid charges in 167 of them.

 

The CBSA initially agreed to provide the entire 10 years of human smuggling statistics but later declined “after further review.” It also declined to break down the statistics by year.

Each of the other agencies refused to provide data.

The CBSA also would not comment on the case of the Iordaches, a Romanian family facing a deportation order who were one of the two families who died in the St. Lawrence River in March. Instead, it provided a general statement on removal orders.

“All individuals who are subject to enforcement action by the CBSA have access to due process and procedural fairness. Once individuals have exhausted all legal avenues of appeal and due process, they are expected to respect our laws and leave Canada or be removed,” the statement said.

Migrant numbers at the U.S.-Canada border are increasing

Experts worry that as the number of migrants heading to the U.S.-Canada border increases, many will resort to human smugglers and risky modes of transport.

 

Just six months into 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recorded 2,670 “apprehensions or encounters” with migrants crossing from Canada across the Swanton Sector – the most popular crossing point on the U.S.-Canada border. That’s more than double (1,065) what was recorded in 2022 as a whole.

The CBP defines an apprehension as “the physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the United States, which may or may not result in an arrest.” An encounter is those who are either apprehended and expelled from the country or apprehended and allowed to go through routine removal proceedings.

January’s total of 367 surpassed the preceding January apprehensions for the past 12 years combined, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

 

 

 

Canada’s data is harder to track due to its convoluted border management system.

Statistics from the Immigration and Refugees Board (IRB) show that irregular border crossings into Canada leading to refugee claims have been climbing for months. In the first quarter of 2022, there were 2,772 claims from irregular border crossers. By the fourth quarter, that number had almost tripled.

The RCMP intercepted 39,611 irregular migrants entering Canada in 2022. Between Jan. 1 and March 31 this year, that number was already at 13,748.

Quebec RCMP noted a “significant increase” in southbound activity in recent months, but a “noticeable decrease” in northbound traffic following the closure of Roxham Road.

“Most times, these individuals that are interdicted by our officers are legally in Canada, sometimes having arrived in Canada days earlier through Toronto or Montreal airports,” a Quebec RCMP spokesperson said.

 

Experts worry that with the increase in numbers, and without the unofficial border crossing at Roxham Road, asylum seekers will attempt riskier crossing methods – leading to more deaths.

“People’s situations are not going to change just because Canada closed the border,” refugee and immigration lawyer Maureen Silcoff says.

“They still need a safe haven. That’s the dangerous part because we know people will fall prey to agents or smugglers who will put people in perilous situations.”

Not enough time has passed since the closing of Roxham Road for its impacts to be gauged, Silcoff says, but she believes other routes will likely open up along the border. She believes that the smuggling industry will “easily adjust itself” to Canada’s new rules, but “more people will be in harm’s way.”

“The government can still invoke public policy exemptions to mitigate that loss of life,” she says.

“People’s need for protection will not change.”

'The RCMP … do a substandard job’ 

 

Sundberg says the increase in the number of travellers attempting land border crossings is a reflection of global instability: a migration crisis, namely, owing to ongoing global conflicts.

Canada’s border services, he says, aren’t equipped to deal with it.

“Two organizations in many regards are addressing the same issue – to monitor irregular migration and protect our borders. It’s inefficient. The RCMP are our defacto border control, and they do a substandard job of it. They don’t have the bodies or the resources to do a better job,” he says.

To improve Canada’s border security, Sundberg says, Ottawa should consolidate border security and migration control under one agency: the CBSA. Officers should also be specially trained in geopolitics, migration and the psychology of human smuggling.

Sundberg also says there should be more officers abroad, especially at high commissions, and a closer working relationship with Homeland Security to understand human-smuggling patterns. Given that airport border security is now largely automated, the CBSA could pull its staff from there to support these new roles, he says.

“We have control of our airports, but we definitely don’t have control of our land borders.”

 

 

 

Some 'refugees' have found a way to exploit Canada's generous immigration system

Opinion by John Ivison

 

 

 

OTTAWA —  Sudanese people crossing the border from the U.S. to make fraudulent refugee claims are like “a trail of ants” who view Canada as a “the picnic table.”

That’s the view of Mariam, a Sudanese-Canadian, who is affronted that her fellow citizens would abuse this country’s generous immigration system.

Few people get as upset about the manipulation of the citizenship process as those who have gone through it themselves and played by the rules.

Mariam (not her real name: she was granted anonymity to protect her from any recrimination) contacted the Post after a story last week revealed that a number of Canadian citizens being processed after evacuation from war-torn Sudan had previously been granted refugee status in Canada, yet had returned to the country they claimed had persecuted them.

In the wake of that evacuation, Ottawa introduced measures to allow immediate family members of those who left Sudan to be fast-tracked into Canada free of charge. Processing staff were “encouraged to be flexible” and “err on the side of facilitation” when dealing with applications.

Mariam said the new measures went viral — “it was like a bomb going off on social media” — as Sudanese expatriates around the world were misled by unscrupulous agents to believe that Canada had flung open its doors to all Sudanese citizens.

One Facebook influencer with 11,000 followers urged them to apply for Canadian citizenship, claiming all Sudanese citizens are eligible. 

 

 

 

Ottawa has not helped itself. The portal accepting applications allows applicants to reach the point where they are permitted to submit biometric information, even though the form states clearly in English that eligibility is limited to spouses and dependent children. Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada said it did not have statistics on how many new applications it has received.

But the likely upshot is that delays for legitimate applicants from Sudan have been extended.

Mariam said the war in her homeland has created genuine refugees but that many of those already in Canada claimed fraudulently that they were escaping persecution in Darfur, a region in western Sudan that has experienced ethnic conflict since 2003. In fact, she said many claimants were members of the party led by Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s head of state between 1989 and 2019, who oversaw the war in Darfur and was accused of crimes against humanity there. He was deposed in a coup d’etat four years ago. “Many came here claiming to be opponents when they were really the oppressors,” Mariam said.

Canada has long been known as a soft target, with strong pull factors like generous benefits.

Mariam said she and her friends are ashamed at the behaviour of many Sudanese refugees. She laid out a “road-map” that typically involves living in a Gulf state, building a good travel history and then applying for a U.S. tourist visa, having already shipped treasured items to Canada. Once in the U.S., she said many head north to access Canada’s more generous welfare and child benefit regimes. One particular dodge involves applying for a special diet disability in Ontario. “The goal is to get as much free money as possible,” she said. “Once you are granted citizenship, you go back to the Gulf.”

She contrasted that with the route travelled by permanent resident applicants, who have to take a language test, save as much as possible and then “wait forever,” unable to make plans for family, school or vacations.

Once in Canada, you “live a simple life and forget about credentials or jobs held before arriving in Canada.” But above all, you work. “I would rather sell my kidney than live on social benefits,” Mariam said. 

 Canada has retained support for mass immigration, largely because economic migrants remain the majority (if you include the dependents of the applicant in that category) and because it is generally considered to be fair. Canada admitted 260,000 immigrants in 2014, the last full year of the Harper government, a number that is expected to rise to 451,000 in 2024. The Conservatives kept the percentage of refugees below 10 per cent, while the Liberals have expanded that number to around 14 per cent.

Yet a broad consensus still exists, outside Quebec at least, that immigration is a good thing, as long as it is based on economics and fairness.

That integrity is undermined by stories like Mariam’s.

She said her experience of Canada’s system being milked is not limited to Sudanese nationals. As an Arabic speaker, she volunteered to help Syrian refugees settle in Canada. She said nine of the 25 families she worked with had not lived in Syria for many years and, consequently, were not genuine refugees.

But she said many Sudanese have figured out how to exploit the system, including returning to their home country by flying to Egypt or Ethiopia and crossing into Sudan over land. That information is shared on Facebook and What’s App groups.

She said such behaviour unfairly stigmatizes people like herself and her family. 

 “My father couldn’t find work in Canada, so he worked in the U.S., saved up and went back to school, while working as a security guard at night. My mother studied, even with five kids. When we came here, we followed the rules,” she said. “If you’re capable, contribute to your country and your community.”

 *This sounds like True Conservative, Peoples Party Of Canada legislation! I think these Ministers responsible should join the PPC because this is not very Liberal of them to pass this bill that I agree with.* 

 

House passes official languages bill to enshrine francophone immigration in law

Story by The Canadian Press

 

 

OTTAWA — A bill that aims to enshrine a francophone immigration program into law is heading to the Senate after clearing the House of Commons.

Bill C-13 would modernize the Official Languages Act and recognize that French is the only official language in Canada that is under threat and therefore must be protected within federal workplaces.

The bill passed third reading in the House of Commons Monday with Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who has expressed concerns about its effect on the minority English-speaking community in Quebec, being the only one to vote against it.

"This is really a historic day. It's a really important day for this legislation and an important day for our country," said Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor following the vote in the House. 

The bill, if it becomes law, would introduce immigration in the Official Languages Act for the first time, and recognize its importance to the vitality of francophone minority communities outside Quebec.

 

The Liberal government believes this will help increase childcare, education and health-care services in French across Canada, where programs are affected by a lack of bilingual workers. 

"Through this modernization we're talking about putting in place an immigration policy with indicators and targets to make sure that we reverse that decline," Petitpas Taylor said. 

The bill would also require that all judges appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada are bilingual in order to improve access to justice and to ensure that future governments can't change the policy.

The bill has been described by MPs as having more teeth, which they said was needed because "baby teeth are not forever teeth," as Conservative MP Joel Godin said during a committee meeting. 

The bill would give more tools to the Commissioner of Official Languages. 

It also would give people working in federally regulated private businesses in Quebec — or in official-language minority communities outside of Quebec — the ability to work in French and be served in French. However, that won't apply to the broadcasting sector.

Strengthening the Official Languages Act had been part of the Liberals' 2021 election platform. 

A previous version of the legislation was introduced in 2021, but it never passed. Bill C-13 was later tabled in March 2022, and if it becomes law it will apply to all federal departments and institutions such as courts, post offices and Service Canada offices.

Petitpas Taylor has said it will also apply equally to all official-language minority communities in Canada, whether they are French-speaking people living in Manitoba, or English-speaking Quebecers.

Housefather broke away from the party line to vote against the bill on Monday and Quebec Liberal MP Sherry Romanado abstained from voting.

Throughout the committee's study phase, Housefather raised concerns because the bill's preamble references the government of Quebec's Bill 96, which was adopted last May before the federal bill was drafted, and requires all provincial businesses to operate in French. 

That provincial law was passed using the notwithstanding clause, which allowed the government to temporarily override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Warren Newman, senior general counsel in the federal Justice Department, told MPs during a committee study of the bill that the mention of Bill 96 will not limit services to English-speaking minorities. 

"I don't see that federal services from federal institutions would be in any way compromised by the mere mention of the fact that the Charter of the French Language and other linguistic regimes are matters that the government recognizes as part of the overall context," Newman said during a March committee meeting. 

Following the bill's passing in the House, Petitpas Taylor also took a moment to reassure English-speaking Canadians.

"I want to be very clear to anglophones listening to us today that C-13 in no way takes away any rights away from official minority communities, and that includes our anglophone communities in Quebec."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2023.