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http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-applications-decrease-1.3976140

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David Raymond Amos 

@James Frank True FYI My ancestors came here long before Canada was ever a country and the Crown was glad to have them settle here and start farming etc They did not pay ten cents to be Canadians way back when. However they fought against many foes including Yankees etc on behalf of the Crown. Hence they earned their rights the hard way.

That said these days our native land is ruled by legions of paper pushing bureaucrats who love to create new positions for their pals. You do know how the bureaucrats love to delay matters and bounce documents back don't ya? I could hardly blame anyone for not bothering to become a citizen these days. Dealing with paper pushers is simply too frustrating for most folks. The legally landed immigrants have their Health Care cards and the SIN cards and are paying their taxes. Revenue Canada makes certain of that. So to become a citizen only allows one to vote and get a Canadian passport. Hell many folks do not bother to vote anyway So as I say why bother?

Tony Adams

Think of Canada as your home and you invite people to a dinner. Everyone is told to bring something and share. A few guests show up and don't bring anything at all. Not only that but they take whatever they want from everyone else and if you say something they stand there quoting their rights and freedoms in your home. Is it fair to the other guests who paid to bring things over and share? No it is not.

David Raymond Amos

@Tony Adams What if Canada IS your home and you have had kids born in the USA and the Canadian bureaucrats who are your servants laugh at your children's rights?

David Raymond Amos

@Tony Adams It kinda interesting that my response to you got several dislikes and likes but nobody dared to agree or even argue me

Methinks the Trolls on both sides of the fence are befuddled N'esy Pas?

Phil K'Mee

@David Raymond Amos

I didn't give you a thumbs up or thumbs down, because yes, I am befuddled. How did you get in that situation. Did you abandon your children in the USA? Are you here on a work visa and want to bring your family up and there is red tape? Are they from a previous marriage? When the question is virtually incoherent it is hard to formulate a proper response.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/vince-li-discharge-1.3979861 

809 Comments

David Raymond Amos

@Karen King My heart goes out to Tim McLean's family It should be obvious to all by now that justice is a myth just like democracy is. The cops taze a pissed off airline passenger to death or shoot people to death on their own property or fill a kid with a pocket knife full of lead on a downtown trolley but the chickens just stood around and watched this wacko preform his beyond evil deeds? Crazy or not Li should never be free to walk among us again. It was a HORRENDOUS CRIME Period.

Never forget this nanny state nonsense went down under Harper's watch. Yea he was tough on crimes that were politically important to him yet many other crimes he turned a blind eye to. Trudeau and his nanny state supporters are no better if not a whole lot worse. I think the shrinks should take their meds IN ORDER heal themselves first before they do anymore damage to whatever faith some of us MAY have left in the "System"

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David Raymond Amos 

@Phil K'Mee Individual rights are EVERYTHING unless you are a Commie or a Facist. or both. Furthermore who are you to say such things of me in this comment section? Do you think you know law?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-applications-decrease-1.3976140

Not that it is any of your business. I am still married to an American woman and we have two adult children whom I have lot been allowed to return to since not long after I ran in the election of the 38th Parliament. I still have permanent resident status in the USA and a Social Security Number etc. but I NEVER wished to become a Yankee citizen. My Father and many of my Loyalist Forefathers buried in Fundy Royal such as ol Dan Keith a Kings Ranger in the Yankee Revolutionary War would likely take up haunting me if I did.

That said after I ran in the election of the 38th Parliament I simple picked up the phone and called Harper first Minister of Immigration pretended he was Monte Hall and made a deal. Without a stroke of the pen the Minister secured the Canadian citizenship status of my two Yankee children and I did not spend 10 cent or sign one piece of paper.

In case you are wondering yea I know the law but more importantly I understand politics. It was Nanny State politics and the politically appointed judges etc who set Mr Li free to roam among us

David Raymond Amos

@Jackson Farley Here Here Sir.

I know that your questions are rhetorical in nature and disliked at a rate of 2 to 1. Please know that I agree with your point and have added my name to the list of people disgusted by the Crown's decisions relating to the future of Mr Li. The two-faced no name Trolls may treat me with a mountain of dislikes. I will bear it like a badge of honour.

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David Raymond Amos

@Phil K'Mee Who are you really? More importantly why does CBC block my responses to you?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-applications-decrease-1.3976140

Canadian citizenship applications decline after processing fees triple

Experts say prohibitive cost is causing some immigrants to delay becoming new Canadians

By Kathleen Harris, CBC News Posted: Feb 13, 2017 5:00 AM ET

 

The number of applicants for citizenship declined last year, and experts say the decrease is largely due to a hike in the application fee. (Peter Power/Canada Day)

 A sharp fee increase has helped fuel a dramatic drop in the number of immigrants applying to become Canadian citizens, according to immigration advocates.

In the first nine months of 2016, there were 56,446 applications filed for citizenship, a decrease of nearly 50 per cent from the same period a year earlier, when 111,993 applications were submitted.

The figures are included in a briefing by former Immigration and Citizenship director general Andrew Griffith prepared for the Senate social affairs, science and technology committee, which begins hearings this week on Bill C-6, a law to amend the Citizenship Act.

Griffith, an author on immigration issues and fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, calls it an "alarming" trend that can be linked directly to a steep increase in fees.

• Fertility rate puts onus on immigration
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• Citizenship revocations on the rise

The processing fee jumped from $100 to $530 in 2014-2015, which amounts to a tripled price tag when the additional $100 "right of citizenship" fee is added.

"If you're a professional doing reasonably well, you may not like it, but you pay it. It's important to you," Griffith told CBC News. "But if you are a struggling immigrant or refugee, suddenly $630 may become prohibitive, and especially if you're talking about a family of four or more."

Newcomers face other costs associated with the citizenship process, including language testing, he said. He recommends cutting the processing fee to $300, abolishing the right-of-citizenship fee, and considering a waiver for refugees and low-income immigrants.

Financial and other barriers

Griffith's brief points to a broader pattern of declining naturalization rates. He warns that a growing part of the population may not fully integrate by becoming citizens due to financial or other barriers and that could lead to marginalization.

"We've always prided ourselves where we have a model where we don't just encourage immigration, but we encourage immigrants to become citizens so they be fully part of society. They can take part in political discussions, they can vote and do all the things that are part of it," he said.

Bill C-6 reverses reforms brought in by the previous Conservative government and takes steps to streamline and strengthen the integrity of the citizenship process. Those include reducing the time permanent residents have to live in Canada to become eligible for citizenship, counting time for work or study in residency requirements, and reducing the language proficiency requirements for younger and older immigrants.

A man raises his hand while taking the Oath of Citizenship at a ceremony in Mississauga, Ont. (Jonathan Castell/CBC)

But the government does not appear prepared to reverse the fee hike brought in by the Conservatives.

Bernie Derible, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, said citizenship fees in Canada are "significantly less" than other comparable countries such as the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

Throughout the cross-country consultations last summer, there was little discussion or concern raised about the fee, he added.

Dory Jade, CEO of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants, said he has heard from plenty of clients who are delaying citizenship because they can't afford the fees.

Make process 'accessible and easy'

"If we want to bring immigrants, especially under a Liberal government which believes in nation builders, making it accessible and easy to become members of your society is a big, big issue," he said.
Jade has met with officials from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to propose a way to address the financial burden.

He said he was told by officials that the current fees are not cost-recovery, which means they are still financed in part by the tax base despite the increase. But he suggested the government could ease the cost barrier by adopting a tax-like formula based on income, developing a loan program, or capping the total fee for a family.

Stephen Green, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer, said he has not heard of the fee being a significant factor in seeking citizenship. He said many of his firm's clients who don't currently qualify under the existing law are anxiously awaiting C-6 to become law so they can apply for citizenship.

The Senate social affairs committee hearings will be held Wednesday and Thursday this week, with a number of immigration and refugee lawyers and academics scheduled to testify.


 http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/vince-li-discharge-1.3979861

Vince Li is not evil; he's sick. But the justice system is treating him like he's cured: Robyn Urback

With absolute discharge, there is no legal recourse if he stops taking medication or seeing psychiatrist

By Robyn Urback, CBC News Posted: Feb 13, 2017 2:43 PM ET

The legal checks and balances that once existed for Vince Li disappeared the moment he was granted an absolute discharge last week, eight years after he was found not criminally responsible for the death of Tim McLean. (John Woods/Canadian Press)

Imagine you're standing in a crowded public place — a playground, a movie theatre, a grocery store — when all of a sudden, you feel someone press something into your ribs. A man in a mask is now standing inches from your face, holding one gun against your body and pressing another into your hand. "Kill them," he whispers into your ear. "Kill them, or I'll kill you."

When a court deems an offender "not criminally responsible" (NCR), it accepts that a crime was committed under these sorts of conditions. There is no actual man in a mask, of course (if there was, there might be grounds for a duress defence — a separate issue); rather "the man in a mask" is a euphemism for a mental illness that has you convinced you must hurt others, usually to stay alive.   

On March 5, 2009, a Manitoba court found Vince Li not criminally responsible for the horrific death of Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus seven months earlier. Li, who has since changed his name to Will Baker, said he heard the voice of God telling him to decapitate and cannibalize McLean, a fellow passenger who Li believed was an alien.

Li's absolute discharge is unconscionable to many who were affected by Li's gruesome crime including the family of McLean, above, the Greyhound passenger beheaded by Li in July 2008. (Canadian Press)

Li's schizophrenia was undiagnosed at the time of the killing. After he was deemed NCR, he was sent to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre for treatment. And last week, after years of earning back small freedoms such as supervised day trips and unescorted outings, Li was granted an absolute discharge.

The decision was blasted by critics nationwide, as Canadians asked how a man who decapitated a Greyhound passenger less than 10 years earlier could possibly be set free. Social media lit up with calls to send Li to prison, and interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose moved to score a few political points by tweeting "Justin Trudeau must put the rights of victims ahead of criminals."

Ambrose is smart enough to know that Li is not actually a criminal but a little too politically minded, apparently, to care. She's not entirely alone. Many of us like to think of ourselves as progressive thinkers on mental health, proudly tweeting #BellLetsTalk to try to erase the stigma around mental illness. And indeed, it's easy when the scenarios are rather straightforward: don't fire someone because he or she suffers from depression; be patient with friends and family members who experience anxiety. But what about when someone commits a heinous, violent act while in the midst of a paranoid delusion? Er… um… what Rona said.

There is a reason why offenders deemed not criminally responsible are sent for treatment, not imprisonment, and why they are eventually released: if we accept that an illness compelled someone to commit a crime — the man in the mask, pressing a gun into his ribs — it is unjust to keep that person confined when that illness is under control. In Li's case, according to the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board, on the advice of Li's psychiatrist and other mental health specialists, his man in the mask is gone — for now. 

Absolute vs. conditional discharge

Where critics of the case have a point is in the decision to grant Li an absolute discharge, meaning he is essentially free of the justice system, rather than a conditional discharge, whereby Li would be required to stick to a treatment plan or report regularly to a psychiatrist. The absolute discharge does make sense from a legal perspective: the review board is required to choose the "disposition that is the least onerous and least restrictive to the accused." As long as the individual "does not pose a significant threat to the safety of the public," he or she must be discharged absolutely.

Li does not pose a risk to the public now that he is on his medication, according to the medical professionals who have treated him for the last near-decade. But the checks and balances that once existed for him (from a legal perspective, at least) disappeared the moment he was granted an absolute discharge. There is now no legal recourse if he stops taking his medication or seeing his psychiatrist, which is unconscionable for many of those affected by Li's actions, including McLean's family. Understandably so.

• Victim's family disappointed by Vince Li's discharge
• 'Mr. [Will] Baker is free. I am not free': Witness to killing of Tim McLean

Some mental health advocates (and perhaps, their libertarian friends) would call it unjust to subject NCR offenders who have completed treatment and rehabilitation to any conditions. And they're right: it isn't fair, but few things about mental illness are. 

To many, it won't seem "right" that someone has to check in with the legal system forever just because he or she suffers from an illness and committed a crime, but at the same time, it's arguably worse to assume that everything is fine, to shrug off whatever act landed the individual in the justice system in the first place, and to blindly trust that he or she won't decide one day that medication is no longer needed. This isn't a call to have every person who suffers from mental illness monitored forever by law enforcement; but after someone has committed such a violent, traumatic act, he or she shouldn't ever be completely "free."

Li was undiagnosed before he killed McLean, meaning he has never had to voluntarily stick to a treatment plan. We have to acknowledge he is sick, not evil, which means he can't be locked up forever. At the same time, he is being treated, not cured, which means there is always the potential of his masked man coming back. Li listened to what he had to say before; the system should make it harder for that to happen again.