CANADA’S PRIME MINISTER REATES TASK FORCE TO ADDRESS IMMIGRATION DELAYS

June 27, 2022

By CIC News | Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that a new task force has been created to address unprecedented delays in government services such as passports, airports, and immigration application processing. The task force, made up of a large group of federal ministers, will seek to identify major gaps in these services and will also be reviewing service delivery and making recommendations for how these factors can...

HOW IMMIGRANTS CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN CANADA

June 27, 2022

By CIC News June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day, an occasion to celebrate Indigenous people and cultures in Canada. Although immigrants oftentimes come to Canada not knowing much about Indigenous people, a recent Environics Institute survey suggests that immigrants generally want to support them, and one of the ways to do so is through learning. Since white European settlers colonized the land we now know as North America, negative narratives of...

CANADA SEES RECORD-HIGH JOB VACANCIES IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2022

June 27, 2022

By CIC News | Job vacancies in Canada climbed to 957,500 in the first quarter, the highest quarterly number on record according to Statistics Canada. The number of job vacancies has spiked by more than 72% representing about 401,900 positions compared to the first quarter of 2020. Job vacancies in Q1 2022 surpassed the previous record high numbers recorded in Q4 2021 by nearly 3%, representing 24,900 more vacant positions. The...

PREMIER’S STATEMENT ON CANADIAN MULTICULTURALISM DAY

June 27, 2022

By BC Gov News | Premier John Horgan has issued the following statement marking Canadian Multiculturalism Day: “Today, we celebrate Canadian Multiculturalism Day, an opportunity to reflect on our shared work to create a British Columbia that is a welcoming place for everyone. “Indigenous Peoples have called this land home since time immemorial. For more than a century and a half, people from around the world have come to British...

CANADA TO INCREASE SUPER VISA LENGTH OF STAY FOR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS TO 5 YEARS

June 24, 2022

By Canadian Immigrant Magazine | On June 7, 2022, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced enhancements to Canada’s super visa program that will allow super visa holders to stay for a longer period of time. According to the announcement from the government of Canada, the changes which come into force on July 4, 2022, will: increase the length of stay for super visa holders to 5 years per entry into Canada. People...

FROM AFGHANISTAN TO FRASER LAKE: THE MECHANICS OF A REFUGEE

June 23, 2022

By Vancouver Island Free Daily | In 2001, Mahdi Taheri was an 11-year-old Afghan refugee living in Iran. If you asked him then, he probably wouldn’t have predicted that he would end up owning his own business in Fraser Lake, B.C. But thanks to some small-town networking and support from his family, that is exactly what happened. Less than 70 days after arriving in Canada on March 24, Taheri has...

SANCTUARY SCHOOLS POLICY ADOPTED BY CENTRAL OKANAGAN TRUSTEES

June 23, 2022

By Kelowna Capital News Central Okanagan Public Schools is ready to identify itself as a Sanctuary Schools zone to support students living with a precarious immigration status. Following the example set by the New Westminster School District in May 2017, the Central Okanagan Board of Education is about to become the second school district in the province to adopt the Sanctuary Schools policy. The Sanctuary Schools policy effectively would bar...

CANADIAN MULTICULTURALISM DAY RETURNS TO MAPLE RIDGE!

June 21, 2022

By Maple Ridge News | Get ready for a fun-filled day celebrating the unique blend of cultures at home in our community! After two years as a virtual event, the Family Education & Support Centre is excited to welcome the community in person for Canadian Multiculturalism Day, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. June 25, at Memorial Peace Park in Maple Ridge! “It’s very exciting to be back in person for this year’s event,”...

MINISTER’S STATEMENT ON WORLD REFUGEE DAY

June 20, 2022

By BC Gov News | Nathan Cullen, Minister of Municipal Affairs, has issued the following statement to mark World Refugee Day on Monday, June 20, 2022: “Most British Columbians can’t begin to comprehend the hardships and challenges that refugees have overcome to seek safety in our province. Sometimes, taking only the belongings they can carry, fleeing in the dead of night or leaving behind friends, family and life as they...

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ARE VANCOUVER TECH COMMUNITY’S ‘SUPERPOWERS-IN-WAITING

June 16, 2022

By Vancouver Sun | Vancouver may have one of the fastest-growing technology sectors in North America, but one local tech leader believes that the city must become more diverse and inclusive if it wants to be a true global powerhouse in this space. “For all our success, we are only scratching the surface of potential for the city’s tech ecosystem in terms of growth and global influence,” says Mansur Mirani,...

VANCOUVER TEEN WHO FLED IRAQ AND THEN TRUMP HEADS TO UBC WITH FULL-RIDE SCHOLARSHIP

June 16, 2022

By Vancouver Sun | Ashki Shkur’s first glimpses of the Vancouver area came from the back of an RCMP cruiser after she and her family were arrested for walking across the U.S. border in search of asylum in 2017. Now the 18-year-old Britannia Secondary student, originally from Iraqi Kurdistan, is headed to the University of British Columbia in the fall with dreams of becoming a surgeon and of a scholarship that fully...

NEW CANADIAN IMMIGRATION PROGRAM IN THE WORKS

June 15, 2022

By CIC News | Canada is working on a new fast-track immigration program for temporary foreign workers and international students. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told CBC News the new program will be a permanent pathway for temporary residents. It will be similar but not identical to the Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) program which opened the door to 90,000 essential workers and international student graduates last year. “We are looking right now at...

UKRAINIAN REFUGEES RECEIVE THERAPY TO DEAL WITH TRAUMA

June 15, 2022

By Maple Ridge News | When the memories of death and destruction get stuck in the brain, they can cause lifelong disability, sheet-soaking nightmares, anger and hair-trigger tempers. A trauma workshop set for this June 24 and 25 in Maple Ridge is intended to relieve those symptoms for women who’ve fled the bombs and bullets of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Crystal Arber, a certified therapist, is leading the workshop...

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF CHINATOWN?

June 8, 2022

By Vancouver Sun “Chinatown is dying.” I hear this phrase often in my advocacy work. Interestingly, it is a common refrain in every major city across North America. Whether you walk the streets of San Francisco, Toronto, New York, Boston, or Edmonton, not only is this heard often, but in each of these cities, there has been a concerted effort from the respective communities to “Save Chinatown.” No matter where...

B.C.’S PUBLIC BROADCASTER FAILING ASIAN COMMUNITY: STUDY

June 8, 2022

By Vancouver Sun | Fewer than four per cent of the main characters in fictional shows on B.C.’s public broadcaster are Asian, the lowest of any broadcaster studied, according to a report by the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. The study, which could be the first of its kind in Canada, calculated the percentage of “main” actors who appeared to be Asian, Black or a person of colour, among scripted shows...

UKRAINIAN JOURNALIST TAKES CIRCUITOUS PATH TO REACH VANCOUVER

June 8, 2022

When Russia started bombing Ukraine on Feb. 24, Anna Klochko was on a weeklong holiday in Odesa and unprepared to make the life-altering decision whether to return to her Kyiv apartment or flee the country. She was rocked out of sleep early that morning and immediately started to react. “The explosion was so huge and I checked the news, it was 5 a.m.,” she said from the backyard of her...

CHINATOWN NEEDS END TO ‘RACIST’ VANDALISM BEFORE CITY APPLIES FOR WORLD HERITAGE STATUS, BUSINESS LEADER SAYS

June 6, 2022

By Vancouver Sun Organizers of a Chinatown mural that was recently defaced are speaking out in hopes of finding solutions to safety and vandalism issues before the city applies for the community’s status as a world heritage site. Five weeks after a five-metre panel of an ox, deer, cranes and peonies were spray-painted as part of a Vancouver Mural Fest piece by local artist Carolyn Wong, they were defaced by...

TSEK’ENE, FARSI, PUNJABI, TAGALOG: THE PUSH TO DIVERSIFY LANGUAGES IN SCHOOLS

June 3, 2022

Nine-year-old Armiti Atayi takes private Farsi classes, but would rather learn the language at her West Vancouver public school in a classroom with all her friends — something that may be possible one day, if the Education Ministry approves a new proposed Farsi curriculum. “So when I go back for a vacation to Iran, I can read signs and read books and watch Persian TV, and cartoons,” said the Grade...

PRE-ARRIVAL SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE TO HELP YOU PREPARE BEFORE ARRIVING IN CANADA SO THAT YOU ARE AWARE OF THE EXPECTATIONS AND CHALLENGES THAT YOU WILL FACE

June 3, 2022

If you’ve been sent an invitation to receive pre-arrival services before your departure, or another similar document outlining your approval to come to Canada as a Permanent Resident, this is where the Build ON program comes in! Build ON is a free, bilingual, pre-arrival service funded by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for newcomers who are planning their lives in Canada. You are eligible if you are currently located...

NEW CANADIANS MOVING FORWARD IN AUTOMOTIVE CAREERS IN ATLANTIC CANADA

June 3, 2022

By Canadian Immigrant Magazine | Patrick Soumaro had never imagined himself finishing a college program, let alone his automotive installation certificate of completion from Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) in Canada. That’s because Soumaro, 39, had spent the previous 26 years of his life living in an Ivory Coast refugee camp after fleeing for his life at the age of 13 when civil war broke out in his native Liberia....

8 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE CANADIAN LANDSCAPE

June 3, 2022

Canada is known for its vast and beautiful landscape. Did you know these eight facts? 1. Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world at 243,977 kilometres. 2. Wasaga Beach in Ontario is the longest fresh water beach in the world. It is 14 kilometres along the shore of Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay. 3. The highest tides in the world occur in the Bay of Fundy, which separates New Brunswick from Nova...

CANADA REPORTS OVER 1 MILLION JOB VACANCIES

June 3, 2022

Canadian employers were actively seeking to fill more than one million vacant positions at the beginning of March 2022, according to Statistics Canada’s latest report on job vacancies, payroll, and earnings. The number of job vacancies in Canada reached a record-high of 1,012,900 in March, more than the previous record of 988,300 in September 2021. There was an increase in 186,400 vacancies between February and March. The job vacancy rate, which measures the number...