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Asylum claims in Canada continue to rise despite coronavirus travel restrictions – Globalnews.ca

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The number of asylum claims being filed in Canada continues to rise slightly despite ongoing global travel restrictions.

The latest figures from the Immigration Department show 1,500 claims for refugee status were filed in Canada in June, up from 1,400 in May.

Read more:
Asylum seekers working in health care sector could be granted permanent residency, minister says

For the first time since April — the first full month of major travel restrictions designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 — refugee claims were filed at airports. There were also multiple claims at marine ports.

Also slightly on the rise were the number of people stopped by the RCMP trying to cross irregularly into Canada: 32 in June, up from 21 in May.

Currently, Canada is turning back those who show up at unmarked border crossings, one of several measures being taken at the border in response to the pandemic.

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1:26
U.N. says number of refugees have doubled in last decade


U.N. says number of refugees have doubled in last decade

How many people will continue to attempt to enter Canada irregularly may change in the coming months, in the wake of a Federal Court decision Wednesday that the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the U.S. violates the charter.

The agreement is the reason just over 3,000 people this year have tried to cross irregularly into Canada in order to file for asylum. Under the deal, they would be turned away at formal border points.

They can still, however, lodge a claim once they are inside Canada.

But Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald said Wednesday that elements of the law underpinning the agreement violate the constitutional guarantee of life, liberty and security.

Read more:
Safe Third Country Agreement ruled unconstitutional — here’s what could happen next

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Under the agreement, which took effect in 2004, Canada and the U.S. recognize each other as safe places to seek protection.

That means Canada can turn away those who arrive at land ports of entry along the Canada-U.S. border on the basis they must pursue asylum in the U.S., the country where they first arrived.

In the long-running court case, the applicants, who are citizens of El Salvador, Ethiopia and Syria, arrived at a Canadian land entry port from the U.S. and sought refugee protection but were refused.

They had argued in court that when returning ineligible refugee claimants to the U.S., Canada exposes them to risks in the form of detention and other rights violations.






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Federal parties weigh in on issue of border crossers seeking asylum in Canada


Federal parties weigh in on issue of border crossers seeking asylum in Canada

In her decision, McDonald concluded the consequences ineligible claimants may face upon return to the U.S. are “inconsistent with the spirit and objective” of the refugee agreement and amount to a violation of the rights guaranteed by Section 7 of the charter.

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The judgement, however, was suspended for six months to allow the government to find a solution.

Talks between Canada and the U.S. to update the Safe Third Country Agreement have been underway for a while, and rights advocates in both countries have urged Canada to use the ruling as opportunity to push them forward.

“Human Rights First notes that the Trump administration’s treatment of asylum seekers is now even worse than it was at the time evidence was submitted in this case,” the non-partisan American group said in a statement.

“In light of the court’s decision and this ongoing deterioration, Human Rights First urges the Canadian government to take this opportunity to withdraw from the ‘safe third country’ agreement.”’

Read more:
The number of people displaced worldwide is at an all-time high. Can Canada do more?

The government can’t sit on its hands and do nothing, said Queen’s University professor and immigration law expert Sharry Aiken.

She said the agreement should be suspended immediately, as the while the court was only dealing with the legality of the deal, it continues to impact refugee claims.

“In my view the Canadian government has a responsibility to act immediately to prevent further violations of our constitution and the international human rights commitments to which Canada has agreed to be bound,” she said.

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“It also means that it would be unconscionable for the government to appeal this ruling and seek a stay of the ruling.”






3:02
Coronavirus outbreak: UN launches global appeal for $2 billion in aid to fight COVID-19


Coronavirus outbreak: UN launches global appeal for $2 billion in aid to fight COVID-19

Current travel restrictions in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 appear to have placed downward pressure overall on asylum claims.

By the end of June 2019, 26,725 claims were filed, compared with 16,865 asylum claims filed so far this year.

The rise in June of this year was due to an increase in people already in Canada making claims at government offices, as opposed to those requesting asylum immediately upon arrival in Canada.

© 2020 The Canadian Press

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After 18-year-old with autism goes missing, mom says Ontario needs vulnerable alerts

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TORONTO – When Jenny Tozer’s 18-year-old son with autism had been missing for more than two weeks, she started to prepare herself for the worst.

Logan left their home in Havelock, Ont., in the middle of the night, travelled 35 kilometres north through wooded areas and got lost trying to get back home, his mom said.

He was eventually found in an abandoned building on the 17th day of his disappearance — “safe with only three tick bites and an adventure to tell,” Tozer said — but the outcome could have easily been tragic, she said.

“(I was) trying to figure out how I was going to hold it together for all his siblings, because they couldn’t understand why he wasn’t home either, and they weren’t sleeping,” Tozer said Wednesday at a press conference.

“I wasn’t sleeping. It was kind of chaotic. It was something no one should have to go through and I’m just very, very lucky that he came home alive.”

Tozer is now adding her voice to others calling on the government to create a new type of alert for vulnerable people.

A provincial private member’s bill from New Democrat Monique Taylor would implement a system of alerts for vulnerable people such as children with autism or seniors with dementia, similar to Amber Alerts, but it is stalled at the committee stage in the legislature.

She introduced the bill in March 2023 and one day of public hearings was held a year later, but the next stage — in which the legislative committee looks at the bill clause by clause and considers amendments — has not yet happened.

“We’re here today to let the government know that we’ll do whatever it takes to ensure this passage, whether it’s sharing the bill with a member of the government — take the bill, make it your own, it doesn’t matter,” Taylor said Wednesday.

“This isn’t about me. It’s truly about the legislation and making sure that we get it passed.”

The bill was inspired by the stories of Draven Graham, a boy with autism who drowned in 2022 after going missing, and Shirley Love, a senior who died in December of that year after leaving her home not dressed for winter weather.

Those families support the bill, as does the Ontario Autism Coalition.

“Just try and envision how it would feel to lose a loved one who, due to their disability or cognitive impairment, is unable to ask for help, is unable to understand safety concerns and is often not going to be able to find their way home,” said Kate Dudley-Logue, vice-president of the coalition.

“It’s terrifying, and it’s any caregiver’s worst nightmare. In the autism community, we all hold our breaths and feel this immense stress every time we hear stories like Logan’s, because so many of us have experienced it and know all too well the very real possibility that their child may not come home.”

There are already various tools used to find missing people and try to help keep vulnerable people out of danger, Taylor said, but this alert system would be a necessary additional layer.

Paul Calandra said last year when he was government house leader that he believed the bill was flawed and he wanted it to go to committee so it could be improved. The office of the current government house leader, Steve Clark, did not immediately respond to questions about the bill.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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S&P/TSX composite rises one per cent Wednesday, U.S. stocks surge after Trump win

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TORONTO – U.S. stocks surged Wednesday after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the election, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 3.6 per cent, while Canadian markets rose by one per cent.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 249.55 points at 24,637.45.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 1,508.05 points at 43,729.93. The S&P 500 index was up 146.28 points at 5,929.04, while the Nasdaq composite was up 544.29 points at 18,983.47.

The Canadian dollar traded for 71.76 cents US compared with 72.18 cents US on Tuesday.

The December crude oil contract was down 30 cents at US$71.69 per barreland the December natural gas contract was up eight cents at US$2.75 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$73.40 at $2,676.30 an ounceand the December copper contract was down 23 cents at US$4.25 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Four years make a big difference for Donald Trump — and for Fox News

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Four years ago, Fox News precipitated an internal crisis with a bold election night call that President Joe Biden would beat Donald Trump in the crucial state of Arizona. This year illustrated the difference that four years can make.

Fox News wasn’t the first network early on Wednesday to declare Trump had sealed his victory over Kamala Harris — upstart NewsNation, conservative rival Newsmax and Scripps Networks led the way — but its ultimate call came nearly four hours before ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and The Associated Press made theirs.

Judging by the cheers that erupted when Fox’s call was shown to the Trump faithful gathered at his West Palm Beach victory party, it was a decision that surely was received much better by its viewers than the 2020 call was.

“When you don’t like how the cake tastes, you’re not going to like the recipe,” said Chris Stirewalt, politics editor at NewsNation. “When you like the cake, you’ll love the recipe.”

Trump, Fox can both claim comebacks on election night

Fox’s Bret Baier called Trump’s victory “the biggest political phoenix from the ashes story that we have ever seen,” and Fox can claim a comeback of its own.

Fox’s Arizona call in 2020 infuriated Trump and many of the network’s viewers. While it ultimately proved correct, it set in motion furious internal second-guessing and led some Fox personalities to embrace conspiracy theories, which ultimately cost the network a staggering $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems.

NewsNation, which used information from the elections forecasting company Decision Desk HQ, made its call at 1:22 a.m. on Wednesday. Scripps and Newsmax, which also use DDHQ, were within a minute of making the same declaration.

At about that time, Baier said that “we’re not there yet,” but noted there was no path to victory for Harris. Fox made its call at 1:47 a.m.

The AP called the election for Trump at 5:34 a.m. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the AP all made their calls within a few moments of each other. The AP explained that its declaration that Trump had won came after awarding Wisconsin to the former president by determining that remaining uncounted votes from around the Milwaukee area would not be enough for Harris to overcome Trump’s lead there.

For NewsNation’s Stirewalt, his network’s early call on Wednesday provided a rich irony. He was politics editor at Fox News in 2020 and he and a fellow executive, Bill Sammon, were essentially fired following the outcry over the Arizona call — even though they were proven right.

“It would be easy to overstate the results and I want to be careful not to do that,” he said. “I will say this, it is a victory for the way things used to be done and a personal vindication.”

Letting the numbers do the talking

He said Decision Desk HQ and NewsNation let the numbers do the talking with their calls. He would not criticize rivals for waiting longer, saying it was a natural reaction to be careful in making race calls following what happened in 2020.

The happiness of some viewers at Fox’s call was evident in some social media posts. Fox rejects any suggestion that its calls are politically motivated and its decision desk, led by veteran Arnon Mishkin, is widely respected in the industry. Stirewalt called Mishkin “superb” and said “it is to Fox’s credit that they kept him when they didn’t keep Bill Sammon and me.”

A vigorous conservative media ecosystem has built up in recent years to compete with Fox. But the network remains king of the hill, illustrated again Wednesday by the Nielsen company’s preliminary ratings of television election night coverage.

Fox averaged 9.7 million viewers for its coverage in the prime-time hours, well above second-place ABC News, which had 5.7 million. Newsmax, Fox’s chief rival for conservative viewers, had 947,000 viewers and NewsNation had 237,000, Nielsen said.

“I am extremely proud of our team’s commitment to delivering the top reporting and analysis to the largest and most politically diverse audience in news,” said Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott.

Trump’s complicated relationship with the network also attests to its continued influence. The Republican candidate was a regular guest on its shows during the campaign, particularly the morning “Fox & Friends,” yet also complains bitterly on social media if he doesn’t like something that is said there.

___

David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.



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