Sign petition: New citizenship rules affecting foreign workers

[Hopefulagain]

1) I would actually like you to point them out.

2) Bigot....not Biggot. Bigot is someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats or views other people with fear, distrust, hatred, contempt, or intolerance on the basis of a person's opinion, ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics. I have no such feelings for refugees. All I say is "Treat everyone equal". They are here, they are safe. Why and how is it presumed that they have any more affinity to Canada than anyone who has immigrated as a student or temp worker and hence, should be exempt from citizenship rules that apply to everyone else?

3) You ARE nasty. PERIOD.

4) You gave me the video links in response to my "3 families" comment. Torontosm gave you stats about refugees also. I did not discriminate against them. All I am saying is dont discriminate against us. For every refugee story you can tell, I am sure there are many students/temp workers out there that have also sacrificed a lot - dont undermine their sacrifices,their sweat and their tears.

5a) For whatever reason he/she needs a passport is NOT important. If he/she has claimed refugee status and cannot travel with his/her original passport to a country because he/she fears persecution. Well, wait for 4 years (like everybody else) and then travel. Why does he/she need "special treatment"?

5b)stick up for minorities (how r u defining minorities - race, country of origin, number of applications) - sticking up for one doesnt mean that you discriminate against others. How do you know that I dont belong to a particular race that is in minority? If its based on number of application then in 2012, there were 23000+ refugees and 9000+ CEC (applicants and dependants). Well then, by that stats I am a minority The exclusions should be for me. And, thats what sashali is petitioning against.

5c) Temp residents dont have the same rights as PR - I almost agree with that statement. Because temp residents do have most of the rights as everyone else (with some caveats,of course) - provincial healthcare, purchasing rights, children of temp residents have access to public schooling, right to apply for a job etc. The only differences that I know between PR and a temporary resident is SIN card beginning with a 9 and no need to renew their visa/permit.
The reason given behind all this change is that they only want to give citizenship to those who have shown evidence of integration into Canadian society. If your reasoning is that an international student and/or temp worker status doesnt constitute evidence, then how does a refugee status constitute evidence? Because the difference between refugee and Temp resident is that a refugee doesnt pay taxes, lives off government income, lives in government provided housing, doesnt particularly contribute to society BUT still wants special treatment where citizenship process is concerned?

 

[maza]

http://m.thestar.com/#!/opinion/redirect/1c267b8097edcb84f8b4cf7e429fb850

1st thing .. read this and see how logical they are critisizing the proposed Act..

2nd thing.. Guys stop fighting.. everyone has his point of view.... that he can try to make others accept and understand.. but not try to impose it..

Good luck everyone

 

[jsm0085]

1) I would actually like you to point them out.

2) Bigot....not Biggot. Bigot is someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats or views other people with fear, distrust, hatred, contempt, or intolerance on the basis of a person's opinion, ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics. I have no such feelings for refugees. All I say is "Treat everyone equal". They are here, they are safe. Why and how is it presumed that they have any more affinity to Canada than anyone who has immigrated as a student or temp worker and hence, should be exempt from citizenship rules that apply to everyone else?

3) You ARE nasty. PERIOD.

4) You gave me the video links in response to my "3 families" comment. Torontosm gave you stats about refugees also. I did not discriminate against them. All I am saying is dont discriminate against us. For every refugee story you can tell, I am sure there are many students/temp workers out there that have also sacrificed a lot - dont undermine their sacrifices,their sweat and their tears.

5a) For whatever reason he/she needs a passport is NOT important. If he/she has claimed refugee status and cannot travel with his/her original passport to a country because he/she fears persecution. Well, wait for 4 years (like everybody else) and then travel. Why does he/she need "special treatment"?

5b)stick up for minorities (how r u defining minorities - race, country of origin, number of applications) - sticking up for one doesnt mean that you discriminate against others. How do you know that I dont belong to a particular race that is in minority? If its based on number of application then in 2012, there were 23000+ refugees and 9000+ CEC (applicants and dependants). Well then, by that stats I am a minority The exclusions should be for me. And, thats what sashali is petitioning against.

5c) Temp residents dont have the same rights as PR - I almost agree with that statement. Because temp residents do have most of the rights as everyone else (with some caveats,of course) - provincial healthcare, purchasing rights, children of temp residents have access to public schooling, right to apply for a job etc. The only differences that I know between PR and a temporary resident is SIN card beginning with a 9 and no need to renew their visa/permit.
The reason given behind all this change is that they only want to give citizenship to those who have shown evidence of integration into Canadian society. If your reasoning is that an international student and/or temp worker status doesnt constitute evidence, then how does a refugee status constitute evidence? Because the difference between refugee and Temp resident is that a refugee doesnt pay taxes, lives off government income, lives in government provided housing, doesnt particularly contribute to society BUT still wants special treatment where citizenship process is concerned?

Nasty? Read your fucking posts!

 

[fkl]

5c) Temp residents dont have the same rights as PR - I almost agree with that statement. Because temp residents do have most of the rights as everyone else (with some caveats,of course) - provincial healthcare, purchasing rights, children of temp residents have access to public schooling, right to apply for a job etc. The only differences that I know between PR and a temporary resident is SIN card beginning with a 9 and no need to renew their visa/permit.

At the risk of jumping irrelevantly, i would point out something. It is true that temp residents have most of the rights, there are still some things that really make a mess. This comes from some one who was very well settled back home too, was offered a job which seemed viable and came over as a temp worker.

For e.g. every thing in Canada is based upon credit history and you cannot build that without a credit card, which no bank would give you even of a small limit. Instead you would be asked to go through a SECURED one for a pretty long length of time.

Similarly, you cannot lease a car beyond expiry of permit, mortgaging house is out of question then.

So the difficulty we face is, we are very very heavily taxed (because of relatively higher tax brackets) but can't go for any thing in Canada which is based upon a commitment beyond a few years.

Add to that the weird situation that if you are in Quebec when you are on temp status, you can only send kids to english school, but once you are permanent you can only send them to french school. You can only imagine the effects if you have school going children.

Just FYI

 

[Hopefulagain]

At the risk of jumping irrelevantly, i would point out something. It is true that temp residents have most of the rights, there are still some things that really make a mess. This comes from some one who was very well settled back home too, was offered a job which seemed viable and came over as a temp worker.

For e.g. every thing in Canada is based upon credit history and you cannot build that without a credit card, which no bank would give you even of a small limit. Instead you would be asked to go through a SECURED one for a pretty long length of time.

Similarly, you cannot lease a car beyond expiry of permit, mortgaging house is out of question then.

So the difficulty we face is, we are very very heavily taxed (because of relatively higher tax brackets) but can't go for any thing in Canada which is based upon a commitment beyond a few years.

Add to that the weird situation that if you are in Quebec when you are on temp status, you can only send kids to english school, but once you are permanent you can only send them to french school. You can only imagine the effects if you have school going children.

Just FYI

Nope, not irrelevant at all. I too faced the same issues when I came here.

Agree completely that it is very frustrating and, I am sure that there are many personal stories of TRV holders that would have faced similar or more harrowing experiences.

But my point was, barring a few exceptions TRV holders have the same rights as PRs and hence, their contribution to Canadian society should be counted during the citizenship application process. If the Govt. of Canada is inclined to weed out all those people who do not have affinity to Canada, then they should make it more difficult for people to retain PR.

 

[fkl]

Nope, not irrelevant at all. I too faced the same issues when I came here.

Agree completely that it is very frustrating and, I am sure that there are many personal stories of TRV holders that would have faced similar or more harrowing experiences.

But my point was, barring a few exceptions TRV holders have the same rights as PRs and hence, their contribution to Canadian society should be counted during the citizenship application process. If the Govt. of Canada is inclined to weed out all those people who do not have affinity to Canada, then they should make it more difficult for people to retain PR.

Oh of course, perhaps i didn't add that in closing. My point was, people on temp status still face more issues and STILL contribute to Canadian society with a job or through their academia. At any rate, worth of that time seems EQUAL to me (rather more - because initially you are giving every thing that a PR does - even more taxes in some cases, but not getting all the benefits).

I would go as far to say, counting that period even in half value in principle, doesn't seem justifiable to me. May be its because i am exactly in the situation and feel bad because i am paying more tax but not reaping at least some of the benefits.

So rooting that out completely is cynical to me. I understand the worries of government that a lot of people can go to US and otherwise while still reaping benefits of citizenship. But there are other ways to prevent that. Scrutinizing a class of people from whom you have already taken somethings away for a while, doesn't make any sense.

 

[sashali78]

We are currently at over 3000 signatures. Our message has been fully formed and published on the petition page. We have started contacting MPs and brining our message and petition to them. So far we are engaging 23 MPs, but we are looking for more volunteers to reach more. If you are ready to volunteer , contact us at : FightTheBillC24 @ outlook.com . We will be providing full document and training support for the assignees.

Support us at: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/house-of-commons-in-parliament-of-canada-do-not-allow-unfair-treatment-of-former-foreign-workers-and-international-students-by-new-canadian-citizenship-bill-c-24

 

[jsm0085]

http://ww2.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=fullcomment.nationalpost.com%2F2014%2F02%2F11%2Fchris-selley-actually-my-citizenship-is-a-right

This is a great article and it really points out the major issue with the proposed bill.

 

[sashali78]

http://ww2.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=fullcomment.nationalpost.com%2F2014%2F02%2F11%2Fchris-selley-actually-my-citizenship-is-a-right

This is a great article and it really points out the major issue with the proposed bill.

Good article indeed.

 

[taleodor]

A bit of good news from the Parliament:

Both NDP and Liberals have shown support for our cause:

http://openparliament.ca/bills/41-2/C-24/

Conservatives are caving in for now. However, they seem scared to address directly the issues raised by our petition, focusing on good parts of the proposed Bill C-24. Anyway. we have several meetings planned with Conservative MPs, where we'll try to explain our point view.

Just as a reminder, NDP and Liberals are winning over Conservatives in the latest polls. This already proves we have a wide support among Canadian public.

 

[zig_zag]

Thanks for the effort. What's happening is just really unfair to us!

 

[ferna]

Thanks for the effort. What's happening is just really unfair to us!

Exactly! while others have to wait 1 more year, we have to wait 2 more years. This is considering the fact that we have been here for couple of years already!

 

[torontosm]

Exactly! while others have to wait 1 more year, we have to wait 2 more years. This is considering the fact that we have been here for couple of years already!

Boo hooo...I have to live in Canada to get citizenship. The audacity of the Conservatives to come up with such laws!

 

[LPS]

Just as a reminder, NDP and Liberals are winning over Conservatives in the latest polls. This already proves we have a wide support among Canadian public.

It proves no such thing. But it is encouraging that the opposition parties are pushing back on some of the harsher aspects of the bill (like revocation of citizenship).

 

[taleodor]

It seems that several Conservative MPs are starting to realize that the provision to strip pre-PR time for ex-foreign workers/international students might not be the best idea.

The only clear argument they can invoke is the backlog. While they have really hard time trying to explain, how the backlog would be solved by this.

So contacting your MP about this bill seems like a good idea.

Also, if you have a twitter account: the English hash tag is #CitAct; the French hash tag is #LoiCit

And don't forget to sign/share the petition:

https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/house-of-commons-in-parliament-of-canada-do-not-allow-unfair-treatment-of-former-foreign-workers-and-international-students-by-new-canadian-citizenship-bill-c-24