Ottawa spends $43M on health care for rejected asylum claimants sparking backlash

Ottawa spends $43M on health care for rejected asylum claimants sparking backlash

Federal figures show Ottawa spent more than $43 million last year providing health care benefits to illegal immigrants and rejected refugee claimants, fuelling criticism from Conservatives who say taxpayers are footing the bill for services many Canadians struggle to access.

Blacklock’s Reporter says data released by the Department of Immigration indicates 19,771 individuals whose asylum claims were denied still accessed coverage through the Interim Federal Health Program, including prescriptions, clinical care and transportation to medical appointments.

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Jamie Sarkonak: I read ‘The Camp of the Saints.’ Here’s why it’s relevant

Jamie Sarkonak: I read ‘The Camp of the Saints.’ Here’s why it’s relevant

Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints (1973) is easily one of the most suppressed books of the 20th century. That’s because it’s a dystopian novel about mass third-world migration, a topic still considered taboo to many. While The Handmaid’s Tale and Nineteen Eighty-Four have become regular headliners of “banned book” campaigns and subjects of novel studies in school curriculums, English translations of Raspail’s magnum opus have been so hard to find that used hard copies sold for prices ranging into the hundreds. Until just last year, that is.

(more…)

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Canada’s brain drain is only half the story

Canada’s brain drain is only half the story

Canada has long consoled itself with a particular self-image, that, whatever its economic shortcomings, it remains a magnet for the world’s talent. People want to come here. The numbers back that up. But a harder question is beginning to surface in the data, not how many people arrive, but how many stay—and whether the ones who leave are the ones Canada can afford to lose.

I recently documented Canada’s net emigration and the disproportionate loss of high-earning, highly educated Canadians, particularly to the United States—the entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, and financiers whose economic contributions far exceed their numbers.

That finding tells only half the story. The other half is what is happening on the immigration intake side of Canada’s human capital equation, and it points in the same troubling direction.

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Man who immigrated to Canada fled the country one day after he was convicted of sex assault

Man who immigrated to Canada fled the country one day after he was convicted of sex assault

An Indian-born man who “absconded” from Canada the day after an Ontario jury convicted him of sexual assault and extortion has been sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison.

The offender, identified only as H.B. in a recent decision from Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, was in an intimate partner relationship with his victim, who is described as a “new Canadian” who is also from India.

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‘An overstay has repercussions’: Officials promise action after damning report on international student program

‘An overstay has repercussions’: Officials promise action after damning report on international student program

OTTAWA — Immigration officials submitted a plan of action to House of Commons committee on Monday, following an auditor general’s report that highlighted serious integrity controls in the international student visa program last month.

Part of that is ensuring voluntary compliance by student visa holders.

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Canada was once a dream destination for Indian students. Is that changing?

Canada was once a dream destination for Indian students. Is that changing?

At an overseas education consultancy in the Indian capital, Delhi, students sit with their parents, flipping through brochures from universities in Italy, Germany and Australia.

But one destination, once the top choice, is now largely absent.

“Until 2023, most of our applications were for Canada,” says Shobhit Anand, who runs the consultancy, which helps students navigate the admission process, including visa applications.

Now, he says they have seen a drop of nearly 80%.

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IRCC orders asylum claimants who crossed U.S. border irregularly to leave or they’ll have someone look out the window for ya!

IRCC orders asylum claimants who crossed U.S. border irregularly to leave or they’ll have someone look out the window for ya!

IRCC orders asylum claimants who crossed U.S. border irregularly to leave or face deportation

Asylum seekers who crossed the border from the United States irregularly and claimed asylum are being ordered by the immigration department to leave Canada as soon as possible or face being deported, after the passing of a new law tightening up asylum rules.

Immigration lawyers have expressed fears that many foreign nationals receiving warning letters from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will now cross back into the U.S. and be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and deported.


And deported? They say that like it’s a bad thing.

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The tough job market isn’t getting any better for young Canadians

The tough job market isn’t getting any better for young Canadians

Landing a first job can be challenging at the best of times, but in recent years, the search has become even more daunting for young Canadians.

“I’ve applied for over 100 companies and so far I haven’t found any even for an interview,” said recent graduate Jay-Owen Angeles at a Calgary job fair aimed at youth ages 15 to 24.

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Man fined $70K after dozens of foreign nationals found working illegally in Banff

Man fined $70K after dozens of foreign nationals found working illegally in Banff

An Ontario man has been fined $70,000 and sentenced to two years of probation and 50 hours of community service after dozens of foreign nationals from Mexico were found illegally working in the Banff area.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and RCMP launched an investigation into suspected illegal immigration activity in June 2022, eventually identifying a group of people travelling from Ontario to Alberta to work illegally in the hospitality industry in Banff National Park.


70K? Just the cost of doing business. What’s needed is jail and asset forfeiture.

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Toronto mans: The strange, multicultural slang of Toronto’s teenagers

Toronto mans: The strange, multicultural slang of Toronto’s teenagers

“That’s my crodie,” the teenage girl squawks loudly, slapping her male friend on the chest as she lets the final word of her sentence roll on: “-deeeeeeeeeeeee”. Passers-by in Jane Finch, a shopping centre in a downtrodden Toronto suburb, do not recoil at this strange pronunciation. They push past the pair into McDonald’s, where, slumped across seats, schoolchildren roll large spliffs. Their sentences are similarly strange, flecked with terms like “gerbert” and “two-twos”. Asked about Shoreham, a nearby estate, an aggrieved teenager exclaims “oppblock”.

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Immigration officers told not to judge credibility of asylum seekers, even if they doubt their stories

Immigration officers told not to judge credibility of asylum seekers, even if they doubt their stories

Immigration experts say the front-line officials charged with initially questioning refugee claimants do not have enough latitude to probe the details of claimants’ stories, even if there is reason to doubt them.

The issue of how and when claimants are questioned came to public attention late last month. That’s when figures provided to MPs on the Commons immigration committee revealed that the Immigration and Refugee Board, which adjudicates asylum claims, has since 2019 processed more than 45,000 refugee cases based on paperwork alone, without in-person hearings, as it deals with a backlog of claims.

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Tasha Kheiriddin: Bill C-12 will not solve Canada’s immigration problems

Tasha Kheiriddin: Bill C-12 will not solve Canada’s immigration problems

Last month, Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act received royal assent. The law gives the Minister of Immigration, Lena Diab, the power to pause applications “in the public interest.” It also retroactively bars persons with expired one-year permits (such as student visas, or temporary work permits) from subsequently filing refugee claims, as they can now do when other avenues to permanent residency are closed. It also eliminates the loophole whereby persons who enter the country illegally and remain undetected for 14 days can also file a refugee claim, under the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement.


It’s a Band-Aid and an awfully small one.

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Toronto’s well-heeled are protecting themselves from the impact of all that cheap labour their Liberal party pals imported for them

Toronto’s well-heeled are protecting themselves from the impact of all that cheap labour their Liberal party pals imported for them

Row over ‘virtual gated community’ AI surveillance plan in Toronto neighbourhood

A row has broken out in one of Canada’s wealthiest neighbourhoods over plans to use an AI-powered surveillance system to create the country’s first “virtual gated community” to combat surging property crime.

Crime rates in Toronto as a whole are dropping but residents of Rosedale have been left on edge by a sustained rise in home invasions, with robbers targeting the tree-lined neighbourhood at a rate more than double the city average. Break-ins and thefts remain the third highest per capita in Toronto.


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Shaken by break-ins, an affluent Toronto neighbourhood takes action

The squad of private security cars fans out after nightfall, their little rooftop lights flashing yellow against the historic homes and manicured hedges of Rosedale. Their drivers patrol the streets slowly, stopping to inspect parked cars and following any suspicious drivers.

Other unmarked security vehicles idle nearby, their drivers wearing bulletproof vests under their shirts, ready to respond to break-ins in six minutes or less.

Inside those graceful homes, residents have prepared crude fortifications: door braces, newly installed alarms, hammer-proof glass.

h/t Patti Jo

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A ‘perfect storm’ in the ER: Why one Toronto hospital is sounding the alarm

A ‘perfect storm’ in the ER: Why one Toronto hospital is sounding the alarm

Emergency visits are surging at an east-end Toronto hospital, forcing staff to treat twice as many patients as the facility was built for.

Michael Garron Hospital tells CP24 that emergency department visits have climbed 31 per cent compared to the previous five-year average, with pediatric cases jumping 74 per cent. The spike comes as hospitals across Ontario face mounting pressure tied to funding constraints, staffing challenges, and growing patient needs.

“This is really because of the area that we serve. We have the privilege of serving a community that is represented by a number of patients that are newcomers to Canada, patients that don’t have previous access to care,” he said.

h/t Patti Jo

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Sabrina Maddeaux: Liberals won’t admit that immigration system has been corrupted

Sabrina Maddeaux: Liberals won’t admit that immigration system has been corrupted

The federal government would love Canadians to believe their monumental immigration screwup was a simple one — that they naively opened the floodgates too far, too fast, surging newcomer numbers past sustainable levels. This version of events both limits their political liability and allows for a band-aid solution of temporarily decreasing immigration targets.

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