Students targeted for prostitution by Brampton landlords? - "A Brampton city councillor claims that rental ads are exploiting desperate international students, particularly girls, and prostituting them for rent. Councillor Rowena Santos told the Toronto Sun that Brampton’s dire international students situation started during the pandemic, and the city “had no choice to deal with it.”... She said that due to what she said is a lack of proper student housing in the city, “they end up in these horrible situations where landlords are exploiting them.” Ads on Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji and other classified sites have increasingly included “friends with benefits” as a so-called bonus for prospective tenants. Concerned residents have begun sharing those ads with councillors... “Because of cultural dynamics, many of these young women don’t even understand sexuality, don’t even understand consent, some of them are completely inexperienced, so the term ‘friends with benefits’ makes it even more horrible, especially if they’re already struggling to find a place to live or the financial means to pay for it,” Santos said. She noted that some of these young women have ended up pregnant and don’t know what to do because of the shame tied to it, so they don’t want to go home. Worse yet, others are committing suicide and being shipped home in coffins, Santos said. Brampton is the first municipality to have a charter related to international students’ quality of life and part of the Residential Rental Licensing (RRL) pilot program centres on housing.
Clearly, even more regulations on landlords and building which will reduce housing supply even more are the solution
Alicia Planincic: Want to regain support for immigration? Prioritize economic immigrants once again - "In 2019, around 46 percent of economic immigrants were selected through the federal skilled workers program specifically because they had the highest number of points. Our estimates suggest that by 2026, only 8 percent of all immigrants will be selected on the basis of having the highest points score. This is cause for concern. The brilliance of the CRS is that it objectively ranks candidates based on who is most likely to bring the greatest value to the Canadian economy. Sure the CRS could be improved, but moving away from it altogether will not only dilute the prosperity gained from immigration but also open the door to political influence of the selection process. What’s caused this shift? One factor is the addition and growth of other streams of immigration. These streams are within the economic class but reflect priorities beyond pure economic prosperity. These include population growth, French proficiency, industry needs, or granting permanent residency to temporary residents. Just in the last five years, several new streams have been added and more are coming. In 2019, the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (now a permanent program) was introduced and in 2022 it was expanded to promote immigration to rural areas. In 2020, an Agri-Food Pilot was launched to prioritize agricultural workers. More recently, a new stream was added to support immigration to Atlantic provinces while another is set to pilot this fall to encourage immigration to Francophone communities. Meanwhile, other streams and policies have been introduced to prioritize those already in Canada as temporary foreign workers or students. While this might seem like a reasonable approach, selecting individuals for economic immigration based on temporary status creates a workaround to the points system, making the CRS almost irrelevant. Also, though it is not new, the biggest factor driving immigration away from the primary skilled worker program has been growth in the Provincial Nominee Program—a program designed to give provinces more say in immigration... At the same time, an even bigger change has come from within the skilled worker program itself. Introduced in 2023, a new method called category-based selection chooses the highest-ranking individuals within a subset of the applicant pool based on a “designated category.” Most categories are based on a particular occupation group (e.g., health, trades, and transport occupations) but could be defined by any criteria and can change over time based on labour market information or stakeholder feedback."
Meanwhile, left wingers want to give everyone permanent residence, i.e. de facto open borders
Rohana Rezel π @rohanarezel@vindi.ca on X - "In April 2022, PM @JustinTrudeau's government removed the automatic shutoff for temporary foreign worker approvals when unemployment hit 6%. Just in case you're wondering why the govt is still approving TFW permits even as unemployment rate climbs to 6.4%. #cdnpoli #tfwp"
Canada's economic implosion a warning for Australia - "the flood of migrant labour into Canada has oversupplied the economy with workers, with 13 out of 15 sectors seeing a decline in output per employee between Q3 2022 and Q1 2024. Canada’s unemployment rate has shot up to 6.4% as of June, up 1.6% from its July 2022 trough. The rise in unemployment would have been worse had it not been for the fall in the participation rate. The weak job market is having a significant impact on individuals trying to enter the workforce. Economists at the National Bank of Canada noted that students had the lowest employment rate since 1998, whereas new migrants are also struggling to enter the labour market, with their unemployment rate rising to 12.7% in June on a 3-month moving average basis, for a total increase of 5.8 percentage points since its trough. “This is equivalent to the variation seen in the 2008-09 recession”, the economists noted. “Job creation hasn’t kept pace with the population’s meteoric rise for some time now”... Like Canada, decades of excessive immigration have created “capital shallowing” and declining productivity growth as the population has grown faster than business, infrastructure, and housing investment:"
Meme - The Ferryman's Toll: "Welcome to Dryden, Ontario, India.
'East Indian Meals'
'Please throw the bottles in BIN'
'Don't Spit in the Urinal pot'
'Please Don't Wash Your Feet in the WashBasin'
'Don't wash your feet here !!'
*Hindi translations*"
Clearly this is "far right" "misinformation". People are only putting these signs up and selling these foods to spread conspiracy theories and be racist against brown people
Mercedes Stephenson on X - "Scoop: Global News had learned Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, immigrated to Canada after 2015. "Toronto man was able to immigrate to Canada despite allegedly having taken part in ISIS violence overseas" Toronto terror arrests raise questions about security screening
The government is refusing to answer questions about when and how the Eldids immigrated to Canada citing privacy and that there are criminal charges before the court. Global News has also learned 26 year old Mostafa Eldid is not a Canadian citizen, contrary to what was said at the RCMP press conference."
Some foreign workers paying $30K or more in illegal fees for a job in Alberta - "They sell labour market impact assessments (LMIAs). That's a federal document most employers need before they can hire a temporary foreign worker, proving they could not fill the job with a Canadian or permanent resident for at least 28 days. It's illegal to charge for an LMIA under Canadian immigration laws. The government fee for an LMIA application ($1,000) should be fully covered by the employer who is facing a labour shortage. But those who work in the immigration field say it's no secret that it does happen due to a poorly structured system, a lack of enforcement and desperation."
UN envoy links temporary foreign worker program to 'contemporary forms of slavery' - "Obokata said migrant workers face deportation if they lose their work permits, which also prevent them from changing employers if they face abuse. "This creates a dependency relationship between employers and employees, making the latter vulnerable to exploitation," he said, adding that many workers are reluctant to report abuse because they fear losing their permits... The spokesperson also refuted Obokata's suggestion that workers aren't able to change employers. They said workers can apply for a interim work permit that would receive a response within 10 to 15 days."
So employers should never be able to sponsor work permits and you need open borders so migrants don't fear being deported?
Riley Donovan on X - "In 2014, Justin Trudeau wrote an op-ed in the Toronto Star arguing that allowing in too many Temporary Foreign Workers "drives down wages and displaces Canadian workers""
Justin Trudeau: How to fix the broken temporary foreign worker program
Damn racist xenophobe!
Thread by @MikePMoffatt on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Short thread time: How on earth did the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers nearly triple in 2022? TL;DR - The federal government made some massive changes a mere 13 days after the Liberals and NDP signed the Supply and Confidence Agreement.
The low-wage stream allows Canadian employers to hire temporary foreign workers for jobs that pay less than the provincial median wage. Note that this doesn't include agricultural workers; that's a separate program. In Manitoba, that's $25/hr.
On April 4, 2022, less than two weeks after the Liberals-NDP signed their agreement, the federal government massively deregulated the Temporary Foreign Worker program to "address current job vacancies across many sectors and occupations." One impactful change was weakening the rule that an employer could only have 10% of their workforce be temporary foreign workers. That got raised to 20%, and in some industries like "accommodation and fast food services" that got raised to 30%. There had also been a rule that, for some occupations, a temporary foreign worker could not be brought in if the unemployment rate was 6% or higher. That rule was waived, making employers in some high-unemployment regions now eligible. This was a deliberate move by the federal government to suppress wage growth for low-income Canadians, and increase the number of temporary workers, who have much weaker labour rights than permanent residents. And I cannot stress this enough: This attack on labour rights happened a mere 13 days after the Liberals and NDP signed their Confidence & Supply agreement, which gave the federal NDP more power than they've had in my lifetime (and I'm nearly 50).
We should note how destructive this program is for the TFWs themselves. The UN has criticized Canada: "Agricultural and low-wage streams of the temporary foreign workers program constitute a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery."
I consider myself on the progressive side of the Canadian political spectrum, and I think we need to acknowledge that we've completely lost the plot on the TFW issue. Our side did this and needs to undo it. Refusing to talk about the problem doesn't help."
Dr. Mike P. Moffatt π¨π¦π
π
on X - "Let’s think about this for a second. What normally happens if a firm can’t find someone to work for $17 an hour? They raise their wage to $18 or $19 an hour, to get more applicants! But with the expansion of the low-wage temporary foreign worker program, they don’t have to!
“But, Mike, some businesses wouldn’t be able to afford $19/hr, and would go out of business”. Quite possibly. So what the policy does is keep a handful of marginal businesses in operation while suppressing wages for everyone else.
And Liberals understood the wage suppression that is caused by large scale expansions of the temporary foreign worker program back when Harper did it.
And which economist were Liberals listening to back then about the wage suppressing nature of expansions to the low-wage temporary foreign worker stream?
"Mike Moffatt, who is a professor at the University of Western Ontario, at the business school—someone who is sensitive to the needs of business—says about this program and what is happening in southwestern Ontario: We're bringing in more and more workers into the worst labour markets in the country. People see that and think this doesn't make sense. It certainly does not, and that is really an example of a program that is not being run carefully."
And a decade ago, New Democrats also understood how expanding the temporary foreign worker stream suppresses wages."
Language barrier in the workplace causing lots of outrageous issues... : r/CanadaHousing2 - "I just want to provide context so that this situation can be accurately understood by those who read this. I work in a big box retail store in the GTA. I work with a lot of employees. 85% of the staff are South Asian ( From India) and new to the country (most of them are posing as students but they mostly work). They all know at least some amount of English, but 90% of the time they choose to speak their native languages which are Punjabi and Hindi. The area where my store is located, customers are also from this demographic as well although they vary in age more. That doesn't stop them from approaching me in a condescending way and speaking in one of the two languages to me, expecting me to know it, then being annoyed that I don't know either language (especially the older customers). I've had customers look me up and down when I told them I only know English and not Punjabi or Hindi. Canada's two official languages are English and French. English is my native language. I am at the intermediate level in French. I just want to clarify that my issue is the language barrier not only with customers but also being alienated with colleagues and managers. This issue is making work tremendously harder than it is already. I'm faced with other issues such as bias and clear favouritism. There are a few managers who speak their language with the employees on the floor and in the break room 24/7. So anyone who doesn't speak that language (Punjabi or Hindi) won't know a thing they are saying. They could even be trash talking someone and get away with it... Therefore those who don't speak or understand the language are oblivious to what is being said. It can be alienating, humiliating, even paranoia inducing being in a workplace environment and not understanding a thing anyone is saying because they all choose to speak in their language and leave you out of the loop. These people are laughing, telling jokes in their language, gossiping, etc... and you're treated like a ghost, completely invisible from everyone and everything being said. There are also cliques (which I figured are common in most retail stores) but again, adds more fuel to the fire when these people stick to those who are from their country especially those who are new to the country and are in the same living situation as them. They reveal in passive aggressive ways how unaccepting and disapproving they are to those who were born and/or raised here by socially excusing them. There are a few older colleagues who have been in Canada for decades. They participate in the same behaviour as the employees who are newer to the country. They fit right in with them. Yeah there are times that they do make some effort to talk with everyone but at the end of the day, they'll stick to what's familar and that's those who are from the same country as them (they feel more of connection to their ethnicity because of these people). They will endorse and enable these "students" wrongdoings, bad behaviour and basically let them get away with almost everything because they feel obligated to defend them. I fear if I speak up and call out this behavior, this issue won't be addressed or solved. 85% of the staff's native language is hindi/punjabi. The managers, HR, and the store manager are all South Asian. They are the majority. They not only speak their languages in the break room, but they speak it 24/7 on the floor given 65% of customers speak this language too. I've had colleagues intervine (basically take my customers away from me) when I was with a customer because they speak their language and I don't therefore, they want to help to the customer given the language barrier. But go figure because I only know English and some French! I feel like i'm at a major disadvantage because of this situation. The fact that I don't speak these languages has contributed to the stress and mental/emotional turmoil this job has caused me. On top of all of this I'm undervalued and overworked. I'm seeing far more cons than pros about working here. I genuinely wonder if anyone else has had a similar job experience recently??"
"We actually have this issue at my work as well. Our HR recently had to state that because we all know English, it is the language that is to be used while working. They can speak to each other in their language while on breaks etc, but it’s not productive while working a grill line with two people speaking Punjabi and one who speaks English and can’t understand them. It’s exclusionary to speak a language everyone cannot understand and creates a hostile/tense working environment. I would speak to your HR about it."
"A car terminal in Richmond BC same thing. Management grew some balls and streight up said English or French on work site. What they do on their own time is on them, if they don't follow the rules look for another job. Blatant attack on Canadian society and culture. Punjab, Hindus or what ever, need to assimilate or get the f out!"
"I too worked in a company that was majority Southeast Asian immigrants and quit within two weeks because they would not speak English or French in meetings."
Thread by @MikePMoffatt on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "This is unbelievably cool - a new website that maps out who got approved to hire temporary foreign workers, and where. Here's the data for City of Toronto. I'm surprised "Dairy Freeze Inc." couldn't find a worker locally. Here is the tool that maps out Temporary Foreign Workers - Labour Market Impact Assessments. Thanks to the Missing Middle viewer who sent it our way. I really have trouble believing we can't find anyone to work at the Dairy Queen by Fanshawe College. (Maybe they'd have more luck if they brought back serving ice cream in those upside down baseball helmets.) We really need to stop solving our problems through exploiting temporary workers in a program that gives them almost no enforceable rights. Anyone good enough to work here is good enough to stay here."
This took a quick turn
Thousands of international students in Canada face deportation, sparking protests nationwide - "Canada is currently witnessing countrywide protests as more than 70,000 international student graduates could face deportation due to federal policy changes, and the unprecedented number of students who came to the country with dreams of a new life say their futures are now in limbo... International students across Canada are organizing protests against the backdrop of looming deportations. A group of students have set up encampments outside the legislative assembly in Prince Edward Island, protesting overnight for more than three months. The international students say they are facing a critical situation as new provincial policies for a 25 per cent reduction in permanent residency nominations have left many unexpectedly vulnerable to deportation. Similar scenes can be witnessed in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. “I spent the most crucial six years of my life taking many risks to come to Canada,” says Mehakdeep Singh, a former international student who is facing deportation. “For the past six years, I studied, I worked, I paid taxes, I earned enough CRS [Comprehensive Ranking System] points, but the government has just taken advantage of us.” Singh is one of the former international students who spent his family’s life savings on tuition abroad. He is now facing the dreadful deadline of his work permit expiring, and there is no promise of permanent residency in sight."
When you were never a real student
After Canada cancelled his deportation, this bisexual man pushes for status for all : r/canadian - "We need to stop taking people in regardless of sexual orientation."
"They all get coaching on what to say in their refugee claim, they are told to say they are gay or will face persecution for their sexual orientation."
"Just like the international students who get caught cheating or just not doing assignments are all coached to say they had a death in the family, or are depressed/suicidal because the diploma mills will take these as valid reasons for academic dishonesty. And when that doesn't work, protest outside the campus or file a bullshit refugee claim"
"There’s a whole industry of “human rights” activists out there who actually don’t give a shit about human rights at all, it’s just another way to “take down the system”…there’s huge money in it, no different than environment activists and all the other activists out there. Not saying they don’t believe some of the principles, but that they wouldn’t be so entrenched if they had to come up with their own money to support their “hobby”"
"I don't like sending people back to shitty homophobic countries to die, but I wonder if there's a neuronal responsiveness test couldn't save a whole lot of bother. I would also think being in a monogamous relationship with a wife and children would make him safe in Kenya unless he was cheating."
"It would be so easy to be a terrorist and just pretend you are a flamer from Kenya. Why is it our problem? Isn't Europe and many other countries much closer than Canada? It's really cold here. Why don't they go to an African country that is OK with gays? Or are they all bigot savages in Africa? Seems like they are being opportunistic."
After Canada cancelled his deportation, this bisexual man pushes for status for all : r/canadian - "Yeah, I always let people who were supposed to be deported dictate my country’s immigration policies."
After Canada cancelled his deportation, this bisexual man pushes for status for all : r/canadian - "Fuck it, just make anyone born on Earth a Canadian citizen automatically."
This is easier than processing millions of asylum claims, since most "sexual minorities" would qualify for asylum
Tristin Hopper on X - "There's a lot of polls saying Canadians are now "anti-immigration" ... which is sort of like saying that someone with full-body sunburns is now "anti-sunshine." We like immigration when it isn't dialed up to damaging, wildly unsustainable rates for no reason whatsoever.
"Remind me; why are we demolishing health care access, affordability, the entry-level job market and basic social cohesion just so we can accept a year's worth of immigrants every few weeks?" Trudeau government: *shrugs*"
Government staff told to skip steps vetting TFW applications - "As the Trudeau government promises to crack down on a temporary foreign worker program it admits has been abused, a Star investigation has revealed the government is fast-tracking applications by directing processing officers to skip crucial steps designed to prevent fraud. Beginning in January 2022, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) directed staff to apply “streamlining measures” when evaluating the legitimacy of applications by employers who want to hire temporary foreign workers. According to internal ESDC documents obtained by the Star and interviews with a current ESDC employee, routine checks meant to ensure the system is not abused by unscrupulous employers have been suspended in an effort to process applications faster. Those checks include contacting employers to confirm they actually applied to hire a worker, verifying that lawyers and consultants applying on behalf of employers are in good standing with their regulator, and clarifying the overtime, vacation and benefits promised to the worker... Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced changes to the temporary foreign worker program he said were designed to reduce the number of low-wage foreign workers business can hire and prompt companies to hire more Canadian residents... Workers in the agriculture, health care, construction and food security sectors — the sectors hiring the most migrant workers — will be exempt from the changes... A long-time ESDC employee on the front line of labour market impact assessment (LMIA) processing told the Star that as the TFW program ballooned and businesses were allowed to hire more and more workers, checks that curbed fraud in the program have been eroded, prioritizing speed over scrutiny... The employee said that since the directive to speed up application reviews came down from national headquarters, staff have scaled back on approximately “50 per cent of what we’re supposed to read on the application” and that while potential fraud is reported, “nothing” happens... “We had to call every single person (applicant) prior to 2022 and talk to them through the application and about their business needs,” said the employee. “Now, I would say probably 90 per cent of the people that are applying aren’t even getting a call. We’re not verifying anything.”... Employers can create fake job openings or partner with consultants to get LMIAs approved, which are then sold to foreign workers for tens of thousands of dollars, often with the worker unaware that selling LMIAs is an illegal practice. Many migrant workers come to Canada only to find their job does not exist, Sierah said. Some employers who actually need workers can also choose to only hire those willing to pay for the job, he added."
Canada turning away more foreigners amid rise in anti-immigration sentiment : r/canadian - "Its not anti immigration its controlled immigration. No more of this fake visa student mills and those overstaying their work visas."
"Every issue of the day has to be presented like this apparently. There is no logical middle ground on any issue, you are either 100% full on screaming in support or labeled a bigot / racist. Very sad, and I don’t see and end to it any time soon."
"The sentiment "you are with us or you're a terrible person" has essentially been the campaign slogan of the Liberals as long as I can remember. I don't think this is new at all, I just think people on places like Reddit have recently found themselves on the wrong end of it."
Canada is vulnerable to U.K.-style riots - "Similar to the U.K., Canada has seen an influx of immigrants from a wider variety of countries, which, while being consistent with human rights norms and enriching diversity, also presents challenges in terms of integration and acceptance. It is also ripe for exploitation by those with divisive agendas... In the U.K., inflammatory rhetoric around this changing demographic contributed to the unrest and Canada is witnessing similar polarization. It should not be a surprise that two-thirds of Canadians say that there are too many immigrants according to a 2023 poll by Abacus. What can be an easier target to blame for the housing crisis, degrading health-care system, social tensions and economic uncertainty faced by the average Canadian? Perhaps we should be looking at the decades of ignoring infrastructure, lack of any real national housing initiatives, failure of long-term planning and throwing money at short-term fixes by both successive Liberal and Conservative parties at all levels of government. Pointing fingers at foreigners is much easier, of course... These details are conveniently ignored by some politicians and far-right groups in Canada, who appear to be dedicated to fear mongering and division. Canada is ranked among the worst countries globally for white supremacist activity. It has the highest number of far-right extremist groups per capita, according to a report published by the U.K.-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue and led by Ontario Tech University professor Barbara Perry, a leading expert on hate groups in Canada... As a society we must hold political and social leaders accountable for divisive rhetoric, condemning language that promotes fear and division."
Conveniently, this leaves out the unprecedented scale of immigration under Trudeau, pretends that the number of "far right" groups means anything without looking at their membership and ignores the left wing's divisive rhetoric and promotion of fear and division.
