Those who were on the verge of immigrating to Canada before the pandemic struck say the government’s sluggish effort to renew their immigration documents is causing them profound financial and emotional stress.
Thousands of approved applicants have been trapped in limbo because border closures delayed their departures, resulting in expired authorizations. Many had already sold their homes, liquidated their assets and pulled their children from school and are now stuck in their home countries.
One of them was Harleen Kaur, who was set to lay down new roots with her husband and their two daughters.
“I had tears in my eyes when I had to open my suitcase, the kids’ suitcase, and take the clothes out. Unpacking had been a difficult thing and I don’t know when we’ll be asked to pack again and move to Canada,” she said.
Kaur, who has a PhD in biotechnology, said her family has been living like refugees in their native India since they sold their property and most of their furniture in anticipation of the move to Canada.
She said she is increasingly exasperated by the lack of communication from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Despite sending emails and filling out online forms, she said, she has been unable to nail down a timeframe for resolving her case.
‘Why are you still here?’
Kaur said her situation feels like a dead end.
“It has emotionally been very draining because we are using our savings that we had saved for Canada, and now we are just depleting it. Our careers have come to a stall and emotionally, it’s very, very exhausting,” she said.
“Socially, we have become a subject of either mockery or sympathy when people ask, ‘Why are you still here? You already sold your furniture, how are you managing?'”
IRCC officials recently told MPs on the immigration committee that the department is dealing with about 10,000 cases of expired confirmation of permanent residency (CoPR). The department started reaching out to affected families in September and has so far contacted about 6,000 of them. Fewer than a thousand have received the necessary authorization and have landed in Canada, officials said.
Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the process of eliminating the backlog is well underway, but it’s a laborious process.
“Officers have been reaching out directly to determine client eligibility and willingness to travel and reopen files as necessary. These efforts often require more time and effort than usual, but we will soon have contacted everyone affected,” he said.
Flights grounded to curb COVID-19 spread
For Olha Lambina, who was born in Ukraine and is now living in Qatar, the wait has been excruciating.
She had booked a ticket, quit her job and was already packing to join her partner to build a new life in Canada. Her travel plans were abruptly cancelled when flights were grounded around the globe to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Lambina has been filling out online forms and submitting documents to prove she is ready to move here permanently, and that she has a quarantine plan for her arrival.
Olha Lambina is desperate to get the necessary federal authorization to immigrate to Canada. Her authorization expired due to pandemic-related travel restrictions. (Submitted by Olha Lambina)
But she has gotten only automated responses from IRCC advising her that her forms have been received — no personalized communications.
“It is an incredibly stressful situation to be in, in addition to the pandemic. There is no clarity when there will be any response from the IRCC team or what their further instructions will be,” she said.
“I’ve been looking forward to moving to Canada for so long and now it is heartbreaking not to be able to start my life there with my boyfriend and our future ahead of us.”
‘We should be treating them with more dignity’
Conservative immigration critic Raquel Dancho said Mendicino and IRCC officials have been “evasive” about their plans to help people stranded in their countries of origin — many of whom quit their jobs in preparation for the move.
“You need to recognize the urgency … for a lot of these people who presumably are going to come to Canada, contribute to our economy, become Canadians one day,” she said. “We should be treating them with more dignity in recognizing verbally and publicly the challenges that they’re going through and that hasn’t happened to date.”
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the process of having IRCC officials reach out to each applicant — even when they already had been approved before the pandemic — is inefficient and a waste of resources. She’s calling on the government to take a blanket approach and honour all of the applications approved for permanent resident status.
“They would be able to come automatically and they would not be jammed in the system with an expired certificate of permanent residence, and would save the staffing resources of having to go through this arduous process … which the officials themselves acknowledge is extremely time-consuming,” she said.
Aditya Madan said he has submitted more than 20 online forms and multiple emails to his local visa office in Mumbai, but has received so far only generic responses in return.
Aditya Madan has launched a social media campaign urging Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to help people whose immigration documents expired during COVID-19 travel restrictions. (Submitted by Aditya Madan)
His mounting frustration has prompted him to launch social media campaigns to push IRCC to act. His financial fears have been growing since he quit his job as a social media marketing professional — before his dreams of immigrating to Canada were dashed.
“Financial losses are still nothing when compared to the mental stress and anxiety that’s caused because of this delay and IRCC’s failure at handling the entire situation,” he said. “I’ve dealt with sleepless nights, extremely low days, and even thoughts about abandoning my immigration dream altogether.”
Madan said he also fears that the career disruption caused by the delays will raise questions for potential employers.
“The dilemma is whether to take up a new job in my home country and reset my life, or wait for just another month, and another one, and another,” he said.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
