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In Canada’s search to attract tech workers, are other migrant workers getting lost in the mix?

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Canada hopes to encourage more tech workers to visit and work in the country. But in its effort to do so, critics of the plan have concerns that the rights of other migrant workers will get lost in the process.

In an announcement last week, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said the federal government is exploring a list of potential policies to encourage high-earning tech workers to tour the country and boost its tech sector, such as a renewed digital nomad scheme and dedicated open work permits.

While the initiative could help to bring in thousands of new workers to fill labour shortages and spur innovation, experts say the government risks perpetuating an inequitable immigration system that gives more mobility and freedom to some workers over others.

“If it’s possible to create open work authorization for the tech industry to allow flexibility for labour mobility … that same [principle] must be extended to all migrants,” said Syed Hussan, executive director of advocacy group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change who’s based in Toronto.

“Why is it that certain groups of people have more rights … and others don’t?”

Hussan and others who work in the field say open work permits and flexible work schemes given to tech workers should be made more available to all types of migrant workers — particularly those in industries experiencing their own shortages, such as agriculture, personal care and health care.

People in these industries — many from countries in the developing world who earn low wages — are typically given restricted visas that limit their stay in Canada based on their work with an employer, make it difficult to qualify for health-care coverage and restrict their ability to speak out against labour abuse over fear of losing their permits, he said.

A bald man with glasses stands outside wearing a purple shirt.
Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, says open work permits and flexible work schemes given to tech workers should be made more available to all types of migrant workers — particularly those in agriculture, personal care and health care. (CBC)

“Canada needs to have the ability for workers in any different wage category to be able to come here with the same rights — and that’s the fundamental issue,” Hussan said.

According to Statistics Canada’s latest data, the industries grappling with the highest job vacancy rates include agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting; health care and social assistance; and accommodation and food services. Ottawa recently launched a separate temporary foreign worker program targeting immigrants working in these industries, among others.

Divide between richer and poorer workers

Canada started prioritizing more highly skilled tech workers sometime in the 1990s due to the internet boom, said Valerie Ann Preston, a professor in the faculty of environmental and urban change at York University in Toronto.

She said this marked the start of extended perks given to highly skilled workers on temporary permits, such as not being tied to single employers, allowing their spouses to work upon immigrating to Canada and providing easier access to permanent residency.

A woman sits at a table, looking at a laptop open in front of her.
Highly skilled workers on temporary permits in Canada have been given extended perks, such as not being tied to single employers, allowing their spouses to work upon immigrating to Canada and providing easier access to permanent residency. (Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock)

“What’s interesting to me is that we maintained the privileged position of high-tech workers,” Preston said.

Many of these tech workers disproportionately come from richer, more developed regions of the world, Preston said. They include North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. Meanwhile, other migrant workers often given more limited working visas disproportionately come from Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and parts of Asia.

They’re often highly skilled in industries from their home country but have a hard time transferring those skills to the Canadian market, which can be due to limitations in their work permits, so they end up making a “trade-off” by working in in-demand industries, Preston said.

“They may come with lots of skills and lots of experience, but they’re going into jobs that don’t offer pathways for career advancement … they’re going into jobs that are not well paid.”

How to correct the ‘2-tier’ system

John Shields, a professor in politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University, said the government’s move toward enticing tech workers fits with its broader plan of using immigration as a way to address labour shortages — spurred by an aging population and a skills gap across the board.

But Canada risks encoding inequity into immigration law if it continues to give more leeway to those at the “so-called top” of the labour market without adjusting its acceptance criteria for those in different but equally important industries, he said.

 

Foreign workers trained for in-demand jobs like nursing are working in N.L. fish plants

3 months ago

Duration 2:19

Some temporary foreign workers arriving in Newfoundland to work in fish plants are certified nurses and early childhood educators — which the province desperately needs more of. Memorial University economics professor Tony Fang talks about skill mismatch.

“There is a bit of a two-tier system here where for those lower-skilled jobs, you see a lot of the emphasis on the immigration program on temporary migration, where people actually have a hard time being able to qualify for permanence,” Shields said.

“And yet … those areas are often in very high demand, and they’re not things that Canadian-born workers or immigrants who’ve been here for a longer period of time want to do.”

When asked if the government would consider expanding open permits to other migrant workers, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said while employer-specific work permits “protect” the Canadian labour market, it understands “the need for flexibility in this space.”

“Which is why since 2019, we have allowed foreign nationals with an employer-specific work permit to apply for an open work permit if they are facing abuse or are at risk of abuse in their workplace,” spokesperson Sofica Lukianenko said in an email statement, adding that people can also apply for new work permits and change employers quickly if they have another job offer.

But for Hussan, the government needs to shift toward an immigration system that gives all workers permanent residency upon arrival, forgoing a multiple-tiered system altogether. For Shields, increasing pathways to permanent residency for all workers is a start.

“We need to fill those gaps all through the labour market, and that includes in some of these other areas which actually should be also better recognized and more highly paid, too,” Shields said.

 

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Mexican schools have 6 months to ban sale of junk food or face heavy fines

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Schools in Mexico will have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or else face heavy fines, officials said Monday.

The rules, published on Sept. 30, target products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile. School administrators who violate the order will face fines equivalent to between $545 and $5,450, which could double for a second offense, amounting to nearly a year’s wages for some of them.

Mexico’s children have the highest consumption of junk food in Latin America and many get 40% of their total caloric intake from it, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund which labeled child obesity there an emergency.

The new ban targets products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile.

Previous attempts to implement laws against so-called ‘junk food’ have met with little success.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday schools would have to offer water fountains and alternative snacks, like bean tacos.

“It is much better to eat a bean taco than a bag of potato chips,” Sheinbaum said. “It is much better to drink hibiscus flower water than soda.”

However, the vast majority of Mexico’s 255,000 schools nationwide do not have free drinking water available to students. According to a report in 2020, the effort to install drinking fountains succeeded in only about 10,900 of the country’s schools, or about 4% of them. Many Schools are located in areas so poor or remote that they struggle to maintain acceptable bathrooms, internet connection or electricity.

Also the most common recipes for beans, refried beans, usually contain a significant dose of lard, which would violate rules against saturated fats.

Mexico instituted front-of-package warning labels for foods between 2010 and 2020, to advise consumers about high levels of salt, added sugar, excess calories and saturated fats. Some snack foods carry all four of the black, octagonal warning labels.

But under the new rules, schools will have to phase out any product containing even a single warning label from school snack stands. It wasn’t immediately clear how the government would enforce the ban on the sidewalks outside schools, where vendors usually set up tables of goods to sell to kids at recess.

Mexican authorities say the country has the worst childhood obesity problem in the world, with about one-third of children overweight or obese.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Panthers’ Reinhart named NHL first star after posting nine points over four games

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NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.

Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.

New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.

Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.

Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Browns QB Deshaun Watson’s season ended by ruptured Achilles tendon, team said he’ll have surgery

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CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.

He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.

Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.

The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”

Watson was injured on a noncontact play in the second quarter of Cleveland’s 21-14 loss to the Bengals and carted off the field in tears.

It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.

The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.

He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.

As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.

Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.

The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.

“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.

“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”

Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.

“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.

“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”

The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.

Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.

With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.

The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.

But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.

Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.

Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.

Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.

Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.

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