Police in Hong Kong made the first arrests under a draconian national-security law imposed from Beijing. Hong Kongers can now be jailed for life for vaguely defined crimes such as “subversion” or “conspiring” with anyone abroad to provoke “hatred” of the communist regime. Mainland secret police can now operate in Hong Kong. America’s House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to put sanctions on banks that do business with Chinese officials who implement the crackdown. See article.
Boris Johnson reiterated his promise that Hong Kongers who were born before 1997, when the territory was handed back to China, could settle in Britain. The handover agreement back then stipulated that the city would retain its basic freedoms until at least 2047. See article.
Following months of talks, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a 90-day global ceasefire to allow war-torn areas to battle covid-19.
India banned 59 apps developed by China’s tech giants, including TikTok, accusing them of threatening the country’s security. The apps have hundreds of millions of users in India. See article.
A terrorist outfit seeking independence for Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, claimed responsibility for an attack on the stock exchange in Karachi. The assailants killed three people before they were shot dead by police.
Iran issued an arrest warrant for Donald Trump. It asked Interpol for help in detaining him and 35 others it accuses of involvement in the drone strike that killed Qassem Suleimani in January. Suleimani was an Iranian general who oversaw Shia militias that carried out attacks all over the Middle East. Interpol dismissed Iran’s request.
Scores of people were killed during demonstrations in Ethiopia that erupted after the killing of Hachalu Hundessa, a prominent Oromo musician. His songs helped inspire a protest movement that led to the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as prime minister in 2018.
The leaders of Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Mauritania met to discuss ways of strengthening security to stop a jihadist insurgency in the Sahel. They were joined by Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, and Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister of Spain. France has more than 5,000 troops in the region.
Zimbabwe froze most mobile-money transactions to defend its ailing currency. It also suspended trading on the stock exchange, where traders had been observing share prices to estimate how much the currency is really worth.
Nearly 30 people, thought to be from the New Generation Jalisco drug gang, attacked the armoured car in which Mexico City’s police chief was riding. Two bodyguards and a passerby were killed. In the town of Irapuato, 24 people were slain by gunmen at a drug-rehabilitation centre. One of the government’s central pledges is to reduce gang violence.
Mexican police arrested a new suspect for the murder of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero in 2014. An earlier report by the government contended that police had handed over the students to a gang, which killed the students and burned their bodies. The report was widely seen as flawed.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), came into force. See article.
Mississippi’s legislature voted to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state flag, which has flown outside the Capitol building since 1894. It is the last state to unstitch the emblem of the Confederacy from official regalia. See article.
Russians voted in a plebiscite on constitutional reforms. According to the electoral commission, 78% approved a package that includes inflation-proof pensions, a high minimum wage and a ban on gay marriage. It also allows Vladimir Putin to run twice more for president, and to sack judges. Voters had to say yes or no to the whole package. See article.
In France Emmanuel Macron’s party was hammered in the second round of local elections. The Greens won the mayor’s office in a number of big cities; the Socialists handily hung on to Paris. Mr Macron is now under pressure to relaunch his presidency with an extensive reshuffle. See article.
The first round in Poland’s presidential election was inconclusive, a rebuke to the incumbent Andrzej Duda, who is backed by the ruling Law and Justice party. Polls show him running neck and neck with the liberal mayor of Warsaw in the next round.
Ireland got its first-ever coalition government between its two historic main parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. The new prime minister, Micheal Martin, replaced Leo Varadkar, who will return to the office in two years’ time if the coalition lasts that long. See article.
Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, invoked the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt when he announced a “new deal” to rebuild the economy. Many of the “new” projects are already in the pipeline. Mr Johnson has urged his countrymen to go to their local for a pint when pubs reopen on July 4th. See article.
Coronavirus briefs
More states in America reimposed lockdowns amid a surge in covid-19. The number of daily cases nationally passed 50,000 for the first time. In California, which had been considered an early success, restaurants and other businesses in 19 counties were ordered to shut. In Arizona, where infections have doubled in the past two weeks, the governor ordered gyms, bars and cinemas to close again for at least a month. See article.
Leicester, a city in Britain, was put back under lockdown as cases there continued to rise, to three times that of the city with the next-highest rate. See article.
The European Union reopened its borders to residents from 14 countries where the virus is under control, such as Canada and New Zealand. The list does not include Brazil, Russia or the United States. China will be added if it reciprocates.
This article appeared in the The world this week section of the print edition under the headline “Politics”
The latest spat between Quebec and Ottawa over immigration is based on politics and not the reality of the labour market, says the head of a major employers group.
“In some ways, it’s deplorable,” said Karl Blackburn, president and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec.
His comments come as Quebec Premier François Legault is threatening to hold a “referendum” on immigration if the federal government doesn’t take rapid action to stem the rising number of temporary immigrants, which include foreign workers, international students and refugee claimants.
“The majority of Quebecers think that 560,000 temporary immigrants is too much,” Legault said last week. “It’s hurting our health-care system. We don’t have enough teachers, we don’t have enough housing.”
Provincial Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette said the province’s demands include stronger French-language requirements in immigration programs managed by the federal government and a reduction in the number of asylum seekers and temporary workers.
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the province’s bid for full control over immigration — currently a shared responsibility — Legault said in March that his federal counterpart had shown openness to some of the province’s demands, and agreed with him on the need to reduce temporary immigrants.
Legault is threatening to hold a ‘referendum’ if Ottawa doesn’t take rapid action to stem the rising number of temporary immigrants. (Olga Ryazanseva/Getty Images)
Businesses affected by visa cuts
Blackburn, however, disagrees that there are too many temporary workers, who he said are “working in our businesses producing goods and services.” Their numbers, he added, reflect the needs of the labour market and of an aging society.
He said he supports the Legault government’s call to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the province because Quebec has received a disproportionate share in recent years. But he denounced the federal government’s “improvised” decision to suddenly reimpose visas on some Mexican nationals earlier this year, a measure Quebec had pushed for as a way of reducing asylum claims.
He said that’s already having “direct effects” on businesses by restricting their ability to bring in workers. Any subsequent measures to reduce the number of temporary workers will further hurt Quebec’s economy as well as consumers who will no longer have access to the same goods and services, he said.
“It’s as if our governments knowingly agreed to cause companies to lose contracts for reasons of political partisanship and not based on economic growth, which is nonsensical in a way,” Blackburn said.
Karl Blackburn, president and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec, says the federal government’s decision to reimpose visas on some Mexican nationals is already impacting Quebec businesses. (Radio-Canada/Lisa-Marie Fleurent)
Politicians are unfairly blaming immigrants for shortages of housing, daycare spaces and teachers, when the real problem is government failure to invest in those areas, he added.
The long-running debate between Quebec and Ottawa has flared in recent months. Earlier this year, the premier wrote to Trudeau about the influx of asylum seekers entering Quebec, which has welcomed more than 65,000 of the 144,000 would-be refugees who came to Canada last year.
Quebec has demanded Ottawa reimburse the province $1 billion — the amount Quebec says it has cost to care for asylum seekers over the last three years.
Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said this week that no country would ever give up total control over immigration. But he said he and his provincial counterpart are having good discussions and agree on many matters, including limiting visas to Mexicans and protecting French.
While Legault has blamed the federal government for the “exploding” number of newcomers, the director of a research institute and co-author of a recent study on temporary immigrants says both Ottawa and Quebec have brought in measures in recent years to facilitate their arrival.
Multiple factors driving immigration surge
Emna Braham says the surge in temporary immigrants is due to a combination of factors, including a tight labour market, post-secondary institutions recruiting internationally, and programs by both Ottawa and Quebec to allow companies to bring in more workers.
She said numbers have now climbed higher than either level of government expected, likely because temporary immigration is administered through a series of programs that are separate from one another.
“We had a set of measures that could be justified individually, but there was no reflection on what the impact will be of all these cumulative measures on the flow of immigrants that Quebec and Canada accept,” she said in a phone interview.
Both Braham and Blackburn point out that the high number of temporary workers in Quebec is also a result of the province’s decision to cap the number of new permanent residents it accepts each year to around 50,000, creating a bottleneck of people awaiting permanent status.
“If the government of Quebec had set its thresholds at the level they should be to meet the needs of the labour market, we wouldn’t be in this situation where [there] is a significant increase in temporary workers,” Blackburn said.
Braham said the moment is right for provinces and the federal government to develop a co-ordinated approach to immigration, and to ensure a system is put in place to ensure both long- and short-term needs are met.
As Quebec and Canada continue to go back and forth about immigration powers, one employers group in Quebec says the problem has more to do with politics than immigration.
The Conseil du patronat du Québec, which represents the interests of employers in the province, says governments needs to stop playing politics with this issue and simply make decisions based on the numbers and the needs of the market.
With an aging population on the rise and over 150,000 vacant job positions across the province, the organization says temporary immigration is needed to fill those spots.
This comes after Quebec Premier François Legault threatened the idea of holding a “referendum” on immigration if the federal government doesn’t act fast to control the increasing number of temporary immigrants. Legault claims the number of immigrants is straining Quebec’s healthcare, education, and housing systems.
But Melissa Claisse from the Welcome Collective says that temporary immigration is not the issue, instead it’s the government’s lack of political will to improve the system, including access to employment support.
“We’re pretty alarmed by the insistence of the provincial government to make immigrant scapegoats for problems that existed a long time, in some cases decades,” said Claisse.
Adding, “We would love to see funding for refugee claimants to have support for finding a job, to connect employers who really need workers to a workforce that’s desperately looking for jobs.”
On Monday, newcomer Henri Libondelo, was outside a Services Québec office in Montreal, waiting to apply for a work permit.
Newcomer to Quebec, Henri Libondelo. (Swidda Rassy/CityNews Montreal)
Libondelo, who arrived four months ago from the Republic of the Congo, says somedays, the line outside the office wraps around the building.
“The office opens at 8:30 a.m., but people arrive here sometimes at six in the morning to stand in line, the line gets very long,” said Libondelo.
Libondelo believes that it’s not the number of newcomers that’s the issue, but rather it’s a matter of organization.
“For the moment, the difficulty that I have is looking for a job. Finding a job has been hard since I’ve arrived here,” said Libondelo.
“It’s really dangerous for refugees to have to face this type of rhetoric from our elected officials,” said Claisse.
