This post is part of the Loving It series.
Lost and Found
The cute Chinese girl turns around and looks worried about her lost one in the crowd of hundreds thronging the Harbourfront public concert. People jostle around her, but then she spots him and waves frantically. Yes, yes, he’s coming… her tall African partner just got held up buying a Hummus platter from the Lebanese stall. She breathes a little relaxed and a beautiful smile returns to her face.
Before my tirade begins, let’s get some facts straight: Toronto is an immigrant city, whether the Mayor likes it or not. More than 50% of Toronto’s population was born outside of Canada. Some 47% of the population is what’s called “visible minority.” More than 60% of all immigrants in greater Toronto area live in metro Toronto. More than 65% of all immigrants to Ontario settle in greater Toronto area.
In our continuing series of interviews with Dr Grey V Trayn, we sat down one beautifully cold day to talk about how potential immigrants deal with the basic logistics of settling in Canada the easy way – without requiring any brain power, pocket power or muscle power.
CanadaImmigrantBlog: Dr Trayn, it’s so good to have you with us on this gloriously bone-chilling evening.
As I’ve been saying since forever, imagine hordes and hordes of my fellow wide-eyed, gawky newbies from poorer countries with so-called conservative values arriving on the Canadian soil…
Our original fellow Canadians – the First Nations of Canada – are Idle No More: Finding new confident voices and a new self-belief to tackle a rightwing federal government that is mandated to be in charge of our great Rentals on Native Land.
Long been marginalised, side-lined, cast-aside and ridiculed by ‘mainstream’ Canadians, the First Nations, it seems, have had enough.
The new occupation list for the much anticipated Federal Skilled Trades Program reads like a – ahem – pipe dream of epic proportions. May be the conservatives were missing Richard Nixon’s plumbers (remember those?) After all, Stephen Harper has won a Nixon Award!
Although yours truly was invited to but missed attending, the recent unveiling of Ontario’s new Immigration Strategy has had me revisit what I’ve always wondered: Why most of the, if not all, Federal Skilled Workers Program framework not handed over to provinces in order to make it more granular, sharper and effective in terms of better qualified immigrant intake.
