• Fueling Olympic spirit with Canadian, union-made products

  • UFCW Canada endorses Rob Ashton in the federal NDP leadership race

  • ‘Elbows up’ isn’t just for Ontario: Doug Ford’s attacks on Crown Royal threaten more Canadian jobs

  • Flu season highlights urgent need for Paid Sick Days Now!

  • Honouring Black History Month

  • Great Canadian Food Products – Stand up for Canada

  • Migrant Food Workers deserve permanent residency: Demand Pathways Now!

  • The National Defence Fund

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UFCW Canada protests changes to Immigration Act

UFCW Canada activists and community allies converged on MP Bob Rae's Toronto constituency office April 16, to deliver a giant ballot to remind the newly elected MP and his fellow Liberal members to back a motion by the NDP to stop the Harper government's proposed amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

The changes to the IRPA would give unprecedented arbitrary power to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to impose quotas, to dismiss some applications without a right of review, and make it harder for families to be reunited while expanding the exploitation of temporary workers as a permanent feature of the labour force.

"Communities across Canada are profoundly disappointed and concerned with the proposed changes," says UFCW Canada's national president Wayne Hanley.

"We are absolutely opposed to granting the Minister arbitrary power over who gets in and who doesn't, and to the unprecedented discretion to discard certain applications altogether," said Hanley, whose comments were quoted in the House of Commons when the NDP moved to block the amendments. The motion failed when the Liberals failed to support it.

"These amendments would also accelerate this government's policy to treat immigrants as labour 'inputs' to be plugged in through temporary visas instead of through permanent immigration," said the National President."On April 9 the Liberals could have backed an earlier NDP motion to derail the IRPA changes," said Hanley, "but they didn't and Canada's immigrant communities aren't about to forget that, especially if the Liberals back out again on the next chance to stop the IRPA amendments."

The gathering outside Rae's office was to pressure the newly elected MP and his fellow Liberals to support a new motion tabled by NDP Immigration Critic Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) that would separate the IRPA amendments from Bill C-50: the budget implementation bill the IRPA amendments are currently attached to. Chow's motion would split the budget bill into two bills and allow the House of Common's Standing Committee on Finance to study, alter, or remove the immigration portion of this bill.

Wednesday's visit to Rae's office followed a Toronto protest on April 9, outside a Toronto hotel where cross-country hearings by the House Committee on Citizenship and Immigration were taking place (see that protest at http://youtube.com/ufcwcanada ).