canadian immigrant

Ontario February 2009 • FREE
INFORM • EDUCATE • MOTIVATE
canadianimmigrant.ca
Voting starts Feb. 16 !
tax-season
tips inside
Managing
Gen ‘Y’ in your
small business
Find love online
this Valentine’s?
Publications mail agreement number 41074504
Nigerian-born theatre producer Bayo Akinfemi
turns to film to tell stories of the diaspora
Maid in Canada: the plight of live-in caregivers
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upfront 21
Eloquent entertainer
Nigerian-born Bayo Akinfemi kept pounding the pavement till
he became a successful entertainer; today he tells the stories
of African and other diasporas eloquently
Modern-day slaves?
It’s time for decision-makers to reassess Canada’s live-in
caregiver program
Tax time
More tips for tax season, including buying RRSPs and opening a
tax-free savings account
31
9
14
16
8 Fusion
23 Business
27 Settlement
30 Careers
34 End Note
Celebrating Black History Month
Gen Y employees
Our Coast to Coast series continues
New column, “Skills for Success”
On the federal budget
Ontario February 2009 • FREE
INFORM • EDUCATE • MOTIVATE
canadianimmigrant.ca
Voting starts Feb. 16 !
tax-season
tips inside
Managing
gen ‘Y’ in Your
sMall business
Find love online
this valentine’s?
Cover: Actor producer Bayo
Akinfemi. Photo by Dayne Jackson.
Nigerian-born theatre producer Bayo Akinfemi
turns to film to tell stories of the diaspora
Publications mail agreement number 41074504
12
Maid in Canada: the plight of live-in caregivers
| publisher’s note |
A minister who finally gets it …
but can he deliver?
J
ason Kenney is an unusual immigration minister. I haven’t often heard
one make statements like “I am open to
new ideas” or “I guarantee I will reduce
the backlog.” It is also not a given to get a
minister who has a broad understanding
of the complex issues that come together
under the immigration portfolio. Not to
mention one who is candid enough to
talk about them.
While Kenney seems to have some
good ideas and intentions, he admits he
doesn’t have a “magic wand” to fix the
problems that plague Canada’s immigration system, such as family reunification.
But at least he seems frustrated by the
challenges and willing to discuss them.
In an exclusive interview with me recently, he made a couple of commitments
regarding the backlog and foreign credentials, and stated he’s planning to hold
a roundtable on the live-in caregiver program soon. He also stated he’d be happy
to chat with Canadian Immigrant on a
regular basis.
But I didn’t expect a call a week later! I
was pleasantly surprised when his office
called me back to see if I wanted to now
ask him anything about the 2009 federal
budget, which came down on Jan. 27.
“You betcha!” So we spoke again just
before going to press with this issue.
Seeing as the budget made little
mention of immigration other than to
announce $50 million toward creating
national benchmarks for foreign credential recognition, I decided to ask Kenney
his thoughts on a tax-related idea they
could have incorporated into the budget
to improve immigrants’ integration into
the labour market, but didn’t, of course.
Here’s what I said to him: “Immigrants are underemployed in Canada
and that is no secret. What can improve
their penetration into the labour market?
Would you consider providing employers
with incentives for giving skilled immigrants their first job in their field of
expertise?”
I went on to explain that this is an
idea I’ve promoted for some time, and his
Conservative colleague Diane Ablonczy
spoke about when she was Opposition
critic for Immigration. We know that Canadian employers tend to be risk averse,
so incentives like a tax credit could
help them give immigrant applicants
a chance. Incentives are already given
to several groups that need assistance,
such as First Nations, youth and the disabled, so why not also to those who give
us generations of taxpayers?
What was Minister Kenney’s response?
“Well, Nick, I am always open to new
ideas that would help immigrants, but
it is also important to maintain public
support for immigration. This is the first
time I have heard that idea, Nick. I am
not sure if there would be acceptance on
this as we do not want to create resentment from Canadians against this. We
are helping immigrants by spending
on them between $3,200-3,400 per immigrant on language training job skills
and settlement services.” He added that
he will ask Ablonczy about this idea.
Meanwhile, I have heard that we did,
in fact, have a similar program in the
1980s with subsidies for the Vietnamese
refugees and apparently it was hugely
successful!
Maybe, Minister Kenney, you can also
look into that. You know my number if
you want to discuss it some more.
publisher
Naeem “Nick” Noorani
February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
Letters
Publisher’s Pick Fed response to magazine
Volume 6, Issue 2 February 2009
Publisher Naeem “Nick” Noorani
nnoorani@canadianimmigrant.ca
Associate Publisher David Frattini
dfrattini@canadianimmigrant.ca
Editor Margaret Jetelina
mjetelina@canadianimmigrant.ca
Associate Editor
Gloria Elayadathusseril
gloria@starmediagroup.ca
Online Associate Editor Karolina Rous
krous@canadianimmigrant.ca
Editorial Designers Ian Lie,
Adam Taylor
Director of Production Mirella Torchia
Production Coordinator Ron Batuigas
Graphic Artist Taylor Shute
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Canadian Immigrant magazine is published
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Entire contents copyright 2009 by Bright Light
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CanadianImmigrant.ca
The office of the Prime Minister has
forwarded a copy of your November
Publisher’s Note (“Seven things Harper
should do for immigrants”), to the Honourable Jason Kenney, minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, concerning immigration issues. We
would like to thank you for sharing your
comments and suggestions.
The changes contained in Bill C-50
are a tool that the government will use
to reduce the backlog of almost one million people, two-thirds of whom are in
the federal skilled worker category. The
Action Plan for Faster Immigration,
which the minister announced on Nov.
28, 2008, identifies 38 occupations that
are currently experiencing labour shortages. The government is committed
to ensuring that skilled immigrants
admitted to Canada can put their
qualifications and abilities to use as
quickly as possible. The occupations in
the ministerial instructions are those
that have been identified as being in
high demand nationally and that have
acceptable pathways to accreditation.
The initial list of occupations is
limited and reflects nationwide labour
market shortages. The department is
currently developing an approach to
regularly assess the national list of
occupations.
The action plan will help achieve the
goal of a flexible and responsive immigration system. In the summer of 2008,
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
(CIC) held cross-Canada consultations
with the provinces and territories, employers, labour associations and other
stakeholder groups, and received recommendations on which occupations to
include. The minister has committed
to hold consultations before any future
changes to the instructions are made.
Also, CIC will monitor the impact of
the ministerial instructions and collect data that will eventually be used
to evaluate the effectiveness of the action plan.
In your letter you also state that
English language skills should be given
more weight in the immigrant selection
process. At CIC, we are aware of the
growing body of research confirming
the importance of language proficiency
in labour market integration and economic outcomes. The department is
always seeking to improve on its programs and, in fact, a comprehensive
evaluation of the federal skilled worker
program is set to begin with final results expected next fall.
Language training programs account
for approximately half of settlement
spending. In 2006, the Government of
Canada invested an additional $1.4 billion, over five years, to fund settlement
services across the country. Increased
funding makes more language learning
opportunities available to newcomers
and reduces wait times for those who
prefer government-funded language
training to private options.
Across the country, new funding
February 2009
has also been used to expand course
offerings at higher levels, including the
provision of enhanced language training, which couples workplace-specific
language training with other supports
that facilitate newcomer access to the
Canadian labour market.
Settlement services are an important
part of a successful immigration program. As a result, CIC is modernizing
its settlement services to be even more
responsive to the needs of newcomers,
with labour market participation identified as a key area for enhanced program
development. More specifically, CIC is
actively examining ways to work with
employers to provide them with the supports and incentives they need to hire
and retain immigrants. For example,
CIC supports initiatives such as Hire
Immigrants Ottawa, which brings together employers, immigrant agencies
and stakeholders to create employment
opportunities for skilled immigrants.
Thank you for your support of the
Canadian experience class (CEC), and
its aims to facilitate the transition from
temporary to permanent residence for
certain international students and temporary foreign workers. CEC is only one
among various avenues of economic immigration. While CEC makes it easier
for temporary residents already here,
and for those who have begun the process of integration, to immigrate, by no
means is Canada shifting to this as its
only pool of potential economic immigrants or only response to meet labour
market needs.
We understand your concern about
the abuse and exploitation of temporary
foreign workers. CIC and the Department of Human Resources and Social
Development are developing a series of
improvements to the Temporary Foreign
Worker program, including the Live-in
Caregiver Program (LCP), which are
designed to increase program integrity
and worker protection.
With regard to the transparency
of decision-making, CIC uses various
mechanisms to consult and learn from
its range of partners and stakeholders
(e.g., federal, provincial, territorial governments, municipalities, the private
sector and non-governmental organizations) that have an interest in improving
the integration outcomes of newcomers.
The intent is to be as transparent in
consultations as the public policy-making process allows and use the insights
gained to improve policy and program
development and, ultimately, provide
benefits to newcomer clients.
As you state, it is important to hear
about settlement and integration experiences and challenges from immigrants
themselves. CIC relies on service-provider organizations, which deal directly
with newcomers, to provide some of
that information, as well as newcomer
interviews, often conducted as part of
program evaluation activities.
We would like to thank you for your
many comments and suggestions to
improve the integration of new immigrants into Canada.
CIC - Ministerial Enquiries Division, Ottawa
Let’s keep the dialogue going!
I’m impressed by the detailed response
CIC has offered to my Publisher’s Note,
and the ensuing exclusive interview I had
with Minister Kenney (see page 12). There
is still much work to be done to improve the
integration of new immigrants into Canada!
Read the following letter to see why.
Nick Noorani, founder/publisher
Future is dark?
I know that you write on Canadian
immigrants’ problems in your popular
magazine.
You try best for the well-being of the
immigrants. Your strong and undaunted journalism is highly appreciable. I
would want to place before you a major
and serious problem faced by the immigrants, especially by the Bangladeshi
immigrants, like myself.
We came here with family for a better
life. We came here for a better future.
When we see that our future here in
Canada is uncertain and dark, we
then look forward for our children’s better future. Most of the people who come
here lose everything back home. Finally, we have been compelled to do
odd jobs to survive. You know very well
that it is very hard to live in Canada
by only one person doing odd jobs. Consequently, wives (children’s mother)
become compelled to do odd jobs. After
doing work in very rigid position, which
they are not accustomed to, they gradually become frustrated and raving, the
effect of which falls on the family.
My distraught question is: “Did we
come here to get this life? To get this
return from Canada?”
We didn’t come here to throw our
peaceful family life into an utter ruin. I
would, therefore, request you to please
do something so that we can escape
from this suffering.
Rakibul, Toronto
Want to share your ideas and
experiences? Or tell us what you’d like
to see more of in the magazine to help
you along in your Canadian journey.
Send your letters to the editor at
mjetelina@canadianimmigrant.ca
Letters may be edited for clarity and
brevity. Please include your name and city.
Need help?
Do you have a question about
immigration law, careers,
employment law, education or
settling in Canada?
Ask one of Canadian
Immigrant’s experts via the
Ask the Experts section at
canadianimmigrant.ca.
FUSION Photo by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
| People |
Canadiana
Will you be mine?
AMEER TAHA
Promising inventor
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
N
ecessity, creativity and collaboration — these are the elements that
fuel innovation and shape ideas into
powerful realities. For Sudanese brothers Ameer and Ahmed Taha, and their
partner Lahav Gil, an Israeli immigrant,
it led to the development of a revolutionary device that took the top honours at
this year’s prestigious Next Great Canadian Idea competition by innovation
consulting firm Nytric.
Their startup’s Certo-Ex device was
chosen over 210 other inventions and
awarded $75,000 in funding toward research, development and production.
The promising invention automates
the extraction of nutrient samples from
substances in just 30 minutes, while existing systems are crude and can take up
to five hours and require the supervision
of laboratory staff. Most importantly,
the Certo Ex is expected to cut down lab
costs by 90 per cent. It could also help in
measuring of nutritional content in food
to create accurate product labels.
Interestingly enough, the device was
conceptualized in 2005 when Certo Labs’
scientific director Ameer, then completing his master’s thesis at the University
of Toronto, was faced with a time consuming problem.
“I was analyzing more than 300 animal tissue samples, often staying in the
lab until three in the morning. That’s
when I figured that there had to be a
faster way to do it,” he recalls.
With his engineer friends, Ameer
cobbled together a prototype extraction
system within a year.
Sensing the potential of the product,
Ahmed brought his entrepreneurial-
ism into the picture — Certo Labs was
formed and Gil was brought on board to
provide his expertise in product development and engineering guidance.
“We are hoping to develop the beta
prototype by the end of 2009,” Ameer
explains, adding that shared vision and
belief in their common goal has enabled
a smooth process.
“Never be scared to collaborate,”
Ameer notes, “If you are weak in something, there is always another person
who is better at doing it.”
While, at 26, Ameer is at the helm of
the innovative company developing a potential breakthrough product even as he
wraps up his education, his 22-year-old
sibling has already founded two companies and has earned a reputation for his
sharp entrepreneurial acumen.
“My brother started by investing in
stocks when he was in high school. He
founded his first company in first year at
university,” Ameer says proudly. “Aside
from this, he also won at least 10 business plan writing competitions.”
Ameer attributes the success of the
siblings to the encouragement of their
parents. “Our parents have been really
supportive of all of us. To them, nothing
we did as children was stupid or silly.”
The Tahas immigrated to Canada 10
years ago.
From his lifelong experience, Ameer
advises parents and teachers on how to
mould their children and students, respectively. “Talent is always there, but
for it to be expressed you need a supportive environment. Every mind is unique
and has potential but needs the proper
support systems to express itself.”
Every Feb. 14, Canadians exchange
heart-shaped boxes of chocolate,
flowers and cards with their loved
ones, all in the name of St. Valentine.
And it’s not just lovers who get into the
Valentine spirit. Canadian children
also have fun exchanging cards
(referred to as “Valentines”) at school
with cute, illustrated messages (like
“Bee Mine” scrawled on top of an
image of a bumblebee).
While cynics may chalk up the
holiday as a cash grab by greeting
card manufacturers and the like,
there is history behind the holiday,
albeit a little mysterious.
What we do know is that the day
can be traced back to both Christian
and ancient Roman traditions.
One legend suggests that
Valentine was a priest in third-century
Rome. When potential soldiers were
outlawed from getting married,
Valentine continued to perform
marriages for young lovers in secret.
Some stories suggest he was put to
death; others say he was imprisoned,
from where he sent the first-ever
“Valentine” to his own sweetheart,
signing it “From your Valentine,” an
expression still used today.
The timing of Valentine’s Day in
mid-February is also linked back to
the pagan festival Lupercalia,
during which Roman priests would
sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a
dog, for purification.
While the origins of the romantic
holiday are vague at best, its popularity has been steady in Canada and
beyond over the years. So why not get
into the loving spirit and ask your
loved ones this question come Feb.
14: “Will you be my Valentine?”
Are you a foreign-trained doctor who is having
difficulty getting a Canadian medical license?
CAPP may be able to help you.
The Clinician Assessment for Practice Program (CAPP) assesses foreign-trained
physicians who believe they are ready to enter family practice without extra
training in Canada and who are legally permitted to work in Canada.
The two-day assessment takes place in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Successful candidates are eligible for a defined medical license in Nova Scotia.
CAPP physicians receive a 13-month program of continuing professional
development and ongoing support by a physician-mentor. The program
gives them the necessary experience to become fully licensed.
Don’t delay. Applications are now being
accepted for the June 2009 assessment.
To learn more about CAPP and to see
why so many new Canadian physicians
choose Nova Scotia, call 1-866-421-9983
or go to www.imgnovascotia.ca
CAPP is a program of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia t www.imgnovascotia.ca
February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
FUSION
| news |
Who inspires you?
Vote now!
Conference connections
Carmen Jacques, CGA, is excited
about participating in the upcoming
sixth annual Internationally Educated
Professionals (IEP) Conference, Feb.
20, at the Metro Toronto Convention
Centre; she knows what it’s like to
come to Canada as an internationally
educated immigrant and face obstacles
in finding work. A university-educated accountant working in a senior
position for the United Arab Shipping
Company in Kuwait, the Indian-born
Jacques moved to Canada in 2003, and
slowly realized she would have to get
a Canadian accounting designation to
practise here.
After researching her options, she
chose the certified general accountant
program and completed it quickly. And,
today, she proudly works for CGA-Ontario as a business development manager, focusing on IEPs. But, looking back,
she wishes that it hadn’t taken her quite
so long to figure out her options in the
first place. Which is why she’s going to
the IEP conference on behalf of conference sponsor CGA-Ontario to help other
newcomers like her.
“I would have been way ahead if
someone would have given me the
kind of information that I’ll be giving
out at the conference,” she says. “My
whole motivation is in being a mentor
to these fellow IEPs.”
The conference, presented by Progress Career Planning Institute, will
feature exhibitors not only from the
accounting profession like Jacques, but
from other fields such as health care,
engineering, business, finance and
information technology.
Nick Noorani, founder and publisher
of Canadian Immigrant, will be a keynote speaker, along with Adeodata Czink, founder of the etiquette company
the Business of Manners.
Silma Hudson Roddau, director of
operations, with Progress Career Planning Institute, says the idea for the
conference began as a way to help their
internationally educated clients break
into the Canadian labour market. “We
have a good understanding of what
these individuals face in integrating
into the labour market,” she says. “We
thought it would be great to bring the
decision-makers and internationally
trained professionals in one place and
get them talking.”
Hudson Roddau adds the conference
not only offers panel discussions and
a marketplace featuring many exhibitors, it also provides immigrants with
face-to-face networking time with
employers. “It’s a forum for them to
connect.”
Quotable
Today, whenever I travel abroad or receive foreign
visitors here at home, I am not surprised by how
enthusiastically the rest of the world sees our
model of pluralism and immigration. That success
is no accident. It is the result of our history and of
the values rooted in that history. It is a
history of accommodating differences
in culture, language and religion,
rather than trying to impose a
false conformity.”
— Jason Kenney,
minister of citizenship,
mmigration and multiculturalism
CanadianImmigrant.ca
February 2009
Nominations for our Top 25 Canadian
Immigrants 2009 are now closed, but
Canadian Immigrant still needs your help!
We’ve received hundreds of
nominations of some of the most
inspirational immigrants in Canada, our
judging panel has created a shortlist
of 75, and now we’re asking you, our
readers, to vote for your favourites.
From mid-February, until March 31,
you can read up about the nominees
at canadianimmigrant.ca/top25, and
vote for who you think has made the
biggest difference to Canada. After we
tally all your votes, the Top 25 will be
announced in our May 2009 edition.
Due to the Family Day stat
holiday in Ontario on Monday,
voting will start on Feb. 17, not
Feb. 16, as originally posted.
The Cricket Canada Scotiabank School Program was officially launched at Eugene Reimer Middle
School in Abbotsford, B.C., where students from grades 6 to 8 were treated to a cricket demonstration
by Canadian National Team players and coaches.
Cricket for Canadian kids
A new elementary school program hopes
to bring the internationally loved sport
of cricket to a wider Canadian audience.
The Cricket Canada Scotiabank School
Program (CCSSP) is a national program
dedicated to teaching and promoting the
game, starting in elementary schools in
the Greater Vancouver Area, Calgary
and the Greater Toronto Area.
“The popularity of cricket in the United
Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Guyana and the West Indies has carried
over into several of Canada’s multicul-
tural communities,” says Rania Llewellyn,
Scotiabank’s vice-president, multicultural
banking. “Through this program, we look
forward to introducing the game of cricket
to a new generation of players while instilling teamwork and interpersonal skills that
will last a lifetime.”
“Cricket in Canada dates back to
the 1700s. Today, ranked 15th in the
world, Canada is on its way to becoming an international powerhouse in
the cricket arena,” says Atul Ahuja,
CEO, Cricket Canada.
CanSpeak
Proverbs, idioms, slang, clichés
“A fat cat”
Wealthy, privileged people
are often referred to by the
slang term “fat cats.”
“For the birds”
When an idea or plan
doesn’t make any sense,
you could say that it’s “for
the birds.” It’s worthless.
“Going to
the dogs”
The state of the economy
is still looking dreary.
Some might say it’s “gone
to the dogs.”
For more funny English sayings, check out canadianimmigrant.ca under “Fun.”
FUSION
| news |
Black History Month
Ontario’s black
community
celebrates
Events
around town
By Jim Coyle
For Rosemary Sadlier, Jan. 20 was a most remarkable day in
what’s been a rather eventful few months.
She watched a man who said his African father might not
have been served 60 years ago in a Washington restaurant
installed in the world’s most powerful office, a black man who
promised a nation in which “all are equal, all are free and all
deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
Naturally, as president of the Ontario Black History Society,
Sadlier was riveted by the inauguration of Barack Obama as
the first African-American president of the United States
“It was amazing,” she said. “It was phenomenal. Seeing
that mass of people, everyone there in support of an AfricanAmerican president, I started crying. And I didn’t mean to.”
Actually, Sadlier’s tears of joy were just the latest celebration
in a string of good news and accomplishment. In January, the
author of The Kids Book of Black Canadian History was appointed to the Order of Ontario. Just before Christmas, she
was at the Legislature to watch the passage of a bill establishing Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day in Ontario. It will commemo-
rate the abolition of slavery in the British Empire 175 years ago,
the law that sparked what Sadlier calls the “first freedom
movement of the Americas,” the flight of escaped slaves to
Canada through the Underground Railroad.
On Jan. 25, Sadlier attended a kickoff brunch to launch the
30th celebration of February as Black History Month. Coming
as it does on the heels of the change in Washington, Sadlier
hopes this year’s celebration will be the best ever.
“It hopefully will bring some attention to the work, the contribution of the African-Canadian community and that’s very
important to me.”
Reprinted with permission of Toronto Star
Da Costa to Obama
The first recorded person of African
heritage to land in what would become
Canada arrived more than 400 years
ago. In 1604, Mathieu Da Costa is said
to have arrived with the French explorers Pierre du Gua de Monts and Samuel
de Champlain.
The first known slave, Olivier LeJeune,
was recorded in 1628. He was brought
to Canada from Africa as a young child
and given the name of one of his owners.
Slavery, however, was abolished in Upper
Canada in 1793 and throughout the entire
British Empire in 1833.
Upper Canada became a safe haven for
runaway slaves, and between 1800 and 1865,
approximately 20,000 black people escaped
to Canada via the Underground Railway.
Today, the black population of Canada
is made up of not only the descendants of
these early immigrants, but new migrants
that have been coming to Canada from
Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and
beyond, throughout the 20th century.
Before 1961, among foreign-born blacks
who arrived in Canada, only one per cent
were born in Africa, while about 72 per
cent came from the Caribbean, and Central and South America. However, among
those who arrived during the 1990s, about
48 per cent were born in Africa, virtually
the same proportion (47 per cent) as those
born in the Caribbean, and Central and
South America.
CanadianImmigrant.ca
February is celebrated as Black History Month to honour blacks of all backgrounds and to remember the struggles of
the past. And, now, with the recent swearing-in of President Barack Obama as the
first black U.S. president, the month will
no doubt celebrate a promising future.
Governor General Michaëlle Jean,
a Haitian immigrant, said this upon
President Obama’s inauguration: “[It] is
a historic moment that we are joyfully celebrating. Because although this event is
taking place in the land of our partners,
our neighbours and friends to the south,
it is filled with symbolic meaning on a
global scale.”
Jean Augustine
In 1979, Toronto became the first municipality in Canada to proclaim Black History
Month through efforts of many individuals and organizations such as the Ontario
Black History Society. Each year, the City
of Toronto supports events and exhibits
scheduled for Black History Month, inviting members of the public to explore and
celebrate the heritage, traditions and culture of black Canadians.
Here are some of the events across the
city:
• African-Canadian artists read or perform from their award-winning works,
Feb. 5, 7-9 p.m. at Lyrical Fireworks at
the Toronto Public Library, York Woods
Branch, 1785 Finch Ave. W.
• Kuumba, Toronto’s largest Black History Month festival, returns to Harbourfront Centre (Feb. 7, 8, 14 and 15)
with music, dance, film, comedy, spoken
word and literary events, at Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay W.).
Contact 416-973-4000.
• Mackenzie House celebrates black history in Toronto through In the Footsteps of the Black Victorians, a walking
tour of parts of Old York, Feb. 22, 1-3
p.m. Contact 416-392-6915.
• Markham African Caribbean Association’s celebrations include a keynote
speech by Jay Hope, Ontario’s commissioner of emergency management
and the highest-ranking black police
officer in the country, Feb. 25, 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m. at Milliken Mills High School,
7522 Kennedy Rd.
Stats and facts
•In 2001, 662,215 Canadians identified themselves as black, a big jump
from 34,400 in 1971 and 21,500 in 1871.
•Blacks represent more than two per cent of Canada’s total population
and 17 per cent of the visible minority population.
• Of the 139,800 black immigrants who arrived in Canada between 1991
and 2001, one-fifth came from Jamaica, 12 per cent from Haiti and 10
per cent from Somalia.
• One-third of the 4,400 blacks who arrived in Canada prior to 1961 were
born in Jamaica. Those from Barbados accounted for 15 per cent, the
United Kingdom six per cent, Trinidad and Tobago six per cent, and the
United States five per cent.
•The majority of black Canadians live in five Canadian cities — Toronto,
Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Vancouver and Halifax.
•In December 1995, the Parliament of Canada officially recognized February as Black History Month, following a motion introduced by the first
black Canadian woman elected to Parliament, Jean Augustine, who was
born in Grenada.
Michaëlle Jean
February 2009
[Sources: Statistics Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada]
Photo by Dayne Jackson
Success Story Faithful filmmaker
Accomplished theatre producer and Gemini-nominated actor, Bayo Akinfemi aims to be a voice
for African immigrants through his work, including in his new film, Scoundrels of Faith
By Glor i a El ayad athu sser i l
B
ayo Akinfemi, a performing arts
graduate from Nigeria, moved to
Canada in 1998 with many stories to
tell. He thought Canada was opening its
doors to him as an entertainer with fresh
ideas and an immigrant perspective.
But his excitement started to drain
when he discovered how difficult it was
for a black actor to find roles in the small
Canadian entertainment industry. It was
even tougher because he was an immigrant.
Akinfemi, who has been nominated
twice for a Gemini Award (the latest one
in November 2008 for a guest spot on the
Canadian television drama, The Border),
doesn’t really like to talk about his initial challenges as an actor in Canada. He
instead says, “I started acting in Nigeria
right after school, but when I came here,
I wanted to get behind the camera.”
But, after a little probing, he concedes
to having given up acting — at least
temporarily. “There are very few roles
written for blacks and I had to compete
with the native-born [black actors],” he
says, frustration reverberating in his
tone. “I looked like them, but I didn’t
speak like them.”
In his pleasing Nigerian accent, he
explains further, “That’s the biggest
challenge. There are a whole bunch of us
… we just have to pound the pavement
every day and hope that the producers,
directors and casting directors would
find more opportunity for us.”
So, instead of waiting around for
opportunity to come to him, Akinfemi
decided he had to make his own breaks.
His first step was to go back to school,
where he studied Canadian-style film
and television production at the International Academy of Design and Technology (now called Toronto Film School).
It was there that he became interested
in directing and even got opportunities
to make short films, and work on commercials and music videos. “I started
working as an assistant director just to
get my foot in the door in the industry,”
he says, adding proudly, “and I worked
my way up to work as assistant director
in Hollywood feature films.”
At the same time, he also fuelled his
artistic spirit in local, black stage productions In 1999, he directed The Gods
Are Not to Blame for the Toronto-based
AfriCan Theatre Ensemble, and, as it
happened, ended up on stage as well.
“One of the actors had to pull out and I
replaced him for that part,” Akinfemi explains. “A fellow actor in the production
was very impressed … he said, ‘Man,
you’re so good! Why don’t you find an
agent and get into acting in movies?’”
Putting together an impressive resumé was not a difficult task, but finding
an agent was. “Of course, they [agents]
didn’t want me because I had no Canadian [acting] experience, you know? Anyway, after a while, a very small upscale
agency decided to give me shot.”
Getting Akinfemi into auditions was
the next challenge. When the agency
managed to line up an audition for the
television series Soul Food, Akinfemi
landed the part. “And that got me into
ACTRA [Alliance of Canadian Cinema,
Television and Radio Artists] as an apprentice member and I started attending
auditions and landing parts,” he says.
He is offered a mix of both black roles
and non-ethnicity-specific roles, but
Akinfemi admits that most roles are
stereotypical and race-related. He credits
his acting skills to the few roles he has
gotten that didn’t specifically call for a
black actor. So were those significantly
big parts? “No!” Akinfemi shakes his
head swiftly.
“No, for big roles, they are very specific, you know … these roles are very
general like janitor, cleaner … where
you can be a Caucasian, Asian, African
… they pick the one that they feel is best
for the part.”
He continues to say, “The one role
that didn’t fall into that category was of
a doctor that I played in Blue Murder. It
was just one scene, though, but I was a
doctor and it wasn’t race specific.”
After many small television parts,
a lead role in the CBC series Human
Cargo — which narrates the stories of
refugees to Canada — came along in
2003. He played the lead character of an
African schoolteacher who escapes genocide. That role got him the 2004 Gemini
nomination for best actor in a movie or
miniseries.
“With the Gemini nomination, I was
all excited and thought I was going to be
working more,” he recalls. “But it didn’t
work out that way. Generally, in Canada,
it is very difficult for actors because there
February 2009
Continued on p. 10
Canadian Immigrant
10 Success Story
“Some people are speaking for us, but we need a lot more voices
and I think I can be a significant part of that.”
Continued from p. 9
isn’t enough to go around. And then, of
course, when you get into minorities, it
gets a lot more complicated.”
According to Akinfemi, programming
decisions are seldom driven by public
opinion and major roles are not written
for immigrant talent. “Thank god for
shows like [Canadian sitcom] Da Kink
in My Hair, which is all about visible
minorities … but you don’t get to see a
lot of shows like that,” he observes. “You
still continue to struggle. You just hang
in there, hoping that you will one day
end up in Hollywood …”
Akinfemi did get a taste of Hollywood
with small parts in Jackie Chan’s The
Tuxedo (he also worked on the film as an
assistant director) and Bulletproof Monk,
starring Chow Yun-Fat. But Akinfemi
eventually realized his real calling was
in telling the stories of immigrants as a
producer and director.
“I just wrote, directed and produced
my first film,” Akinfemi says excitedly.
“The experience for me was absolutely
incredible — to be able to conceptualize
a project and put it all together without
any [monetary] help from anybody.”
The film, Scoundrels of Faith, is a drama about love, friendship and betrayal.
CanadianImmigrant.ca
The main character, Rufus, played by
Akinfemi himself, is a broke, reformed
criminal, who is forced to make a choice
between his newfound faith in god and
the comfort of his past, crooked life.
“I have brought the multiculturalism of Toronto into this film. The cast
includes blacks, Caucasians, Asians,” he
points out. “It was intentional because
I cannot see how I can set that kind of
a story in Toronto, and it wouldn’t represent different ethnicities. I felt that it
brought in a touch of reality and that’s
what I would like to continue to do.”
Many of his friends worked for free in
the film, made for under $80,000.
“Even though it was a low-budget film
and all, to actually see it all happen, was
incredible,” Akinfemi says. The film was
premiered in December at the Jamaican
Canadian Centre in Toronto, to an audience that included the high commissioner
of Nigeria, Iyorwuese Hagher.
The determined filmmaker is preparing to take the film to festivals like the
Toronto International Film Festival, and
expects to sell it to a distributor of independent films, which deals with niche
audiences such as immigrant and ethnic
communities.
Under the banner Greenland Enter-
February 2009
tainment, Akinfemi plans to produce
more feature films and short films reflecting immigrant cultures and issues.
“Some people are speaking for us, but we
need a lot more voices and I think I can
be a significant part of that,” he says.
“Ever since I came to this country, my
life is intersecting with different people
from different parts of the world, and
I’m sitting down with them, listening to
their stories, sharing ideas and things
like that …”
Akinfemi has also drawn inspiration
for his projects from his stint as a taxi
driver. “I’ve heard stories of fellow taxi
drivers from other parts of the world who
are PhD holders and medical doctors …
how does a medical doctor end up driving
a taxi in Toronto? And you read in the
newspapers about the shortage of doctors. That baffles me,” he says.
These are the types of immigrant issues he wants to explore further in his
films. “I would like to bring these things
out. Let the politicians know … that
there’s a serious problem here. You are
announcing to the whole world, ‘Come on,
get over here, we need doctors, lawyers,
engineers,’ and when they get here, they
are at a loss. That makes me furious.”
While Akinfemi wants to use the vi-
sual medium as a vehicle for dialogue
about the integration of newcomers, he’s
pragmatic about it. “Is it going to change
anything? I don’t know. But maybe if you
talk about it long enough, somebody is
going to pay attention and somebody is
going to do something about it. That’s
what I’m hoping to do.”
Akinfemi plans to invest the returns
from his debut film into such upcoming
projects in addition to looking for additional funding for his filming projects.
Until then, Akinfemi is going to also
focus on stage productions; currently, he
is directing The Marriage of Anansewa,
written by Ghanaian playwright Efua
Sutherland. It is the story of a trickster
who schemes to give his daughter in
marriage to the highest bidder. The play,
presented by the AfriCan Theatre Ensemble, will be shown at various schools
across the city as part of Black History
Month celebrations this February.
Whether in film, television or theatre,
as an actor, director or producer, Akinfemi is happy with his accomplishments
as a storyteller in Canada so far, but
has many tales he still wants to share.
“I want to tell the stories the way they
should be told — the incredible stories of
African and other diasporas.”
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12 FEATURE
Connecting
with Kenney
According to Minister of Citizenship, Immigration
and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney, the backlog
of immigrant applications to Canada will be reduced by a third in three to four years.
Canadian Immigrant’s Nick Noorani asks Immigration Minister
Jason Kenney questions direct from our readers
NN: What are you doing to make Canada a
destination of choice for qualified, productive
immigrants given that: Canada is in a recession;
the economies of India and China are booming;
it is so difficult for immigrants to get jobs and
certification; and Australia and New Zealand
are becoming more competitive as immigrant
destinations?
JK: First of all, we’re at a huge disadvantage because of the processing times. The
backlog that built up in the 1990s from
40-50,000 cases to more than 800,000
cases when we took office, and the fiveyear waiting queue, is totally unacceptable. When Australia and New Zealand
can process skilled immigrants in six
months, and it’s taking us sometimes
six years, we’re putting ourselves out of
competition. That’s why we took difficult
and somewhat controversial steps in our
Action Plan for Faster Immigration, including the priority occupations that will
allow people to get processed now within
six to 12 months in our 38 key categories
that were defined after consultations
with provinces and others. I know there
is some skepticism and opposition to that
approach about it, but something had to
be done.
We’re also developing greater flexibility in the system, through expanding
provincial nominee programs and allowing qualified skilled foreign workers a
pathway to permanent residency through
the Canadian experience class (CEC). Finally, we’re looking at attracting more
qualified foreign students — the prime
minister has asked me to focus on this.
Again, the CEC provides a pathway to
permanent residency for these students,
which is a huge marketing advantage.
We’re also doing some administrative
things to reduce the lengthy processing
times. We’re spreading the work more
around in our missions abroad and have
increased the budget for our ministry to
speed up processing.
And, finally, we have to do a better
job in preparing people for their arrival in Canada. The pilot stuff we’re
doing through our Foreign Credentials
Referral Office, such as the Canadian
Immigration Integration Project (CIIP),
which is providing intensive seminars for
selected permanent residents before they
arrive, is a new product to make us more
competitive, because it gives immigrants
a head start on their immigration experience to Canada.
NN: The new national occupations classification list (a list of eligible skilled workers as of
Feb. 27. 2008) includes professionals in various
CanadianImmigrant.ca
fields whose credentials will not be recognized
here, including engineers and doctors. Will the
government fast track not only their entry into,
but also their licensing in Canada?
JK: Well, we would if we could. As you
know, the federal government doesn’t
regulate the recognition of professional
credentials. And that’s not an answer
that immigrants want to hear. But that
is the division of powers.
The good news, I think, is governments at all levels are finally starting to
get the urgency of this issue of credential
recognition. In fact, the prime minister
led the premiers to the first-ever national agreement on foreign credential
recognition at the first ministers’ meeting here in Ottawa [in mid-January].
And they’ve agreed to a timeline by the
end of this year to come up with national
benchmarks for accelerated credential
recognition. This is a hugely important
development.
And so, no, can I guarantee that a
doctor coming in under the fast-track
process will be practising within a couple
of months of their arrival? No, I can’t.
But I can say that things are getting better. Many of the provinces are putting
pressure on the professional agencies to
expedite credential recognition. We’re
looking at ways, for instance, they can
recertify medical practitioners who have
degrees from particular universities.
I think that progress is being made on
the issue of foreign credential recognition, but there’s still a lot more work to
be done.
NN: Why then, though, would doctors and engineers be on that list?
JK: Because they’re most needed. I mean
the list was developed after consultation with the provinces and with other
stakeholders, and medical professions
were at the top of the list. It’s not true
that all doctors who come to Canada
end up driving taxi cabs. The fact is that
many do find their way into practice. We
have doctors from South Africa working
in Saskatchewan, which aggressively
recruited them through their provincial
nominee program, and many physicians
have been able to get their credentials
recognized through the kind of prerecognition I’m talking about through
certain medical institutions. Engineers,
perhaps, are a little more challenging.
Again, I think we’re making progress
on that front.
Look, with or without the ministerial
instructions under Bill C-50, go back
February 2009
six months under the old system and we
were still bringing in engineers and doctors. We’re not going to stop trying to recruit people in these areas in industries
where we need their skills until we come
up with a final solution to the credential
recognition problem. We can’t wait that
long. Especially in the medical field; we
need these people desperately.
NN: What happens with all the people who applied before Feb. 27, 2008, and still have to wait
for six or more years for their application to be
processed?
JK: They’re all guaranteed that they
will be processed in the same order in
which their application was received.
It’s that any future applicants, as of
February 2008, who don’t fall within
the 38 categories will get a letter shortly
indicating that they don’t qualify for
the identified occupations in the skilled
worker program, but we will point out to
them other programs for which they can
apply, including the provincial nominee
programs and temporary foreign workers programs.
NN: How long do you think it will take to remove
the backlog or at least reduce it by 50 per cent?
JK: I guarantee you, that in 2009, this
will be the first time in 15 years that
we begin to see the backlog start to go
down, rather than up. It’s been going up
relentlessly since 1993; 2009 will be the
year that we turn the corner. It won’t
be dramatic in the short term. But our
projections are that we can reduce the
backlog by a third within the next three
to four years. And that’s significant
given the size.
If we did not take action, the backlog
would be cresting over a million files in
this calendar year. We didn’t want to go
past that psychological breaking point,
of a million files in the queue. I’m very
optimistic — no, I’m more than optimistic — I’m 100 per cent confident that we
will begin to see the numbers go down.
NN: One last question: family reunification
— there’s a two-year waiting list to start the
process, and then a five-year waiting list …
what’s going on?
JK: Boy, that’s a tough one. It’s the most
political sensitive issue we’re facing.
People are frustrated with the waiting
times, I understand that. The department advises me that in the last two
years, certain areas of family reunification have been accelerating by up to
40 per cent. We obviously prioritize the
immediate family members. And I think
we’re making some strides on that front.
But, frankly, look it wasn’t our government who developed this huge waiting
list. Sorry to make a partisan point, but
I’m going to: in 1993, when the Liberals came to office, the total queue of all
streams was about 40,000 files. When we
came to office, it was more than 840,000
files.
It’s tragic. I understand the frustration
[sighs heavily]. If there was some magic
wand we could wave to get all these applications processed in one year, believe
me I’d be waving it. But there’s not, and
it’s going to take time for us to turn this
around. I just have to ask people to be
patient in the meantime.
The questions posed to the minister were
collected from our readers via
Immigrantnetworks.ca.
To read additional questions and
answers with Minister Kenney, go to
canadianimmigrant.ca.
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR RETIREMENT SAVINGS
BY INVESTING IN AN RRSP
If you’re a new Canadian, you
undoubtedly came here with many
hopes and dreams for your future
and the future of your children. To
realize those dreams, you should
give some thought to saving for
your retirement years. But saving for
the future can feel out of reach after
first landing in Canada because
you have so many other financial
priorities, such as buying a new
home or saving for your children’s
education. The good news is that
there are tools that can help, such
as a Registered Retirement Savings
Plan (RRSP).
A Registered Retirement Savings
Plan (RRSP) is a personal savings
plan registered with the Canadian
federal government allowing you to
save for the future on a tax deferred
basis. It can contain a variety of
qualified investments including:
savings deposits, treasury bills,
guaranteed investment certificates
(GICs), mutual funds, bonds, and
equities. What makes an RRSP
special is that your contributions
to an RRSP are tax deductible,
meaning that they reduce your
tax. Furthermore, your portfolio
grows on a tax deferred basis until
withdrawn. Individuals with RRSP
contribution room in Canada may
contribute to an RRSP up to the
end of the year in which they reach
age 71.
CONSIDER DOING THE FOLLOWING TO HELP YOU SAVE:
Make regular contributions to your RRSP:
One approach is to start slowly, setting aside
small amounts. Consider an automatic RRSP
contribution program to make these small
steps a priority in your financial life.
Carry forward unused contribution room:
Investors who don’t regularly maximize their
annual RRSP contributions miss out on
significant tax deferred growth potential. The
good news is that you can carry forward any
unused contribution room to future years.
Reduce your debt:
Making regular payments to reducing debt can make it
difficult to find money for an RRSP contribution. Generally,
the best strategy is to start reducing high-interest debt such as
credit card debt, then focus on lower-interest debt such as a
mortgage.
Take out an RRSP loan:
In certain situations, it makes sense to take out a loan to top up
your RRSP. For example, if you have unused RRSP contribution
room available, you can borrow money to catch-up, and then
use your tax savings to help repay your RRSP loan.
There are a variety of options to
help you save for retirement and a
number of different ways to meet
your short-term and long-term
goals. It’s important to work with
an RBC® advisor that understands
your risk profile, time horizons and
priorities in order to determine
the best options for you. An RBC
advisor will also help you build a
plan according to your unique goals
and circumstances as a newcomer
to Canada.
For more information about RRSPs,
or to speak with an advisor, please
visit any RBC Royal Bank branch,
for service in over 150 languages
please call us at 1-866-756-1106 or
visit rbc.com/firstrrsp.
The material in this Article is intended as a general source of information only, and should not be construed as offering specific tax, legal, financial or
investment advice. Every effort has been made to ensure that the material is correct at time of publication, but we cannot guarantee its accuracy or
completeness. Interest rates, market conditions, tax rulings and other investment factors are subject to rapid change. Individuals should consult with
their personal tax advisor, accountant or legal professional before taking any action based upon the information contained in this Article. Financial
planning services and investment advice are provided by Royal Mutual Funds Inc., a member company under RBC Wealth Management. Royal Mutual
Funds Inc., RBC Asset Management Inc., Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Trust Corporation of Canada and The Royal Trust Company are separate corporate
entities, which are affiliated. Royal Mutual Funds Inc. is licensed as a financial services firm in the province of Quebec.
®Registered trademarks of Royal Bank of Canada. ©2008 Royal Bank of Canada.
14 FeATURE
Glecy Duran came to Canada
from the Philippines under
the live-in caregiver program;
today, as chair of SIKLABB.C., she would rather see
the program shut down than
continue in its current form.
Photo by Sandra Minarik
Maid to order?
Canada’s live-in caregiver program: some call it the modern-day slave trade and want it abolished,
others just want it reformed; either way, it’s time that something is really done
By Margaret Jetelina
G
lecy Duran was trapped. The Filipina live-in caregiver, who was taking care of five children, one with special
needs, would wake up everyday at 6 a.m.
in her makeshift bedroom (a.k.a. “the
boiler room”), and work all day up to 8
p.m. or even 10 p.m. at night.
She also had to keep the huge home
spotless, including its four bathrooms,
which were inspected daily. “Yeah, I was
the maid,” affirms Duran, when asked
how she was treated.
For this, she was supposed to get paid
$1,400 a month, minus $325 for room and
board, but after a couple of months, the
Victoria, B.C. couple who had hired her
gave her only $200 a month. “They said
it would come later, but I told them that
I needed to survive now. I needed to send
money back home to the Philippines,” says
Duran, who had 12 brothers and sisters
depending on her to help with university
tuition. “But they knew the program and
they said if I wasn’t happy, I could quit.”
They knew — and Duran knew — that
if she quit, she would likely end up being
sent back to the Philippines. Though the
live-in caregiver program (LCP) is technically a temporary workers program, if the
caregivers complete two years of employment in Canada, they can then become
permanent residents. Currently, there
are more than 20,000 in the program,
about 90 per cent from the Philippines,
CanadianImmigrant.ca
and most of them are hoping to stay in
Canada permanently. To them, the sacrifice of leaving behind their families, often
their own children, for a few years, is too
great a price to pay for just temporary
work; they’re doing it for a chance at a
better future.
There’s a loophole, though. The 24
months of employment have to be completed within 36 months, which can become tricky if a caregiver is laid off and
has to find a new employer. There is a lot
of red tape in getting a new work permit.
In Duran’s case, this was already her
fourth employer, and her last chance to
fulfil the program’s permanent residency
requirement.
Glecy Duran was trapped.
“I was crying, I couldn’t stand it,” says
Duran. “I felt hopeless.” She decided to call
the federal immigration department, but
her complaints went unheard. Immigration referred her to the provincial government ministry responsible for employment
standards. The province referred her back
to the immigration department.
VOICES GO UNHEARD
The voices of live-in caregivers like Duran
have long gone unheard by decision-makers, but the caregivers have not stayed
silent. They have assembled into associations that advance the rights of domestic
workers like SIKLAB-Canada, of which
February 2009
Duran is the B.C. chapter chair, the West
Coast Domestic Workers’ Association and
Toronto-based Intercede For the Rights
of Domestic Workers, Caregivers and
Newcomers, all of which call for fairer
treatment of caregivers and reforms, if
not an outright end to the program.
There’s also a new theatrical production that gives voice to their plight. Called
Nanay (the Tagalog word for “mother”),
the play premiered Feb. 4-7 as part of the
Push Festival in Vancouver.
The script is based largely on the research of Geraldine Pratt, an academic
from the University of British Columbia,
who has spent more than a decade listening to the stories of these women, many
of whom were nurses or teachers in their
homeland. In collaboration with the Philippine Women Centre of B.C., Pratt led
an in-depth study of 15 domestic workers
to examine the program’s potential for
exploitation. No doubt some women are
treated well and even become like a member of the family, but Pratt heard story
after story of employers taking advantage
of caregivers like Duran.
“There’s a murky grey area of what
constitutes work in the home,” says
Pratt. Caregivers are often treated more
like maids or servants, than nannies, and
expected to be on call all the time. Some
parents might even have the nanny take
care of other children from the neigh-
bourhood, charge for it, but then pocket
most of the fee to offset their own costs.
Most commonly, perhaps, a caregiver’s
work hours often get stretched way too
long. “The parent might, say, go pick up
groceries after work instead of coming
home right away, thinking ‘What does
it matter? The [nanny] is home anyway,”
says Pratt. “But at least when taking care
of kids, the parents do come home eventually. In the case of eldercare, you’ll be in
the home giving 24-hour care. No one is
coming to relieve you.”
While the caregiver may understand
these situations are unfair, she may not
know how to handle them because she’s
too afraid of being fired and eventually deported if she doesn’t fulfil her 24 months
of work within the required 36. “They do
have the right to change their employer
… but when you have that clock ticking,
that does restrict your mobility between
employers certainly,” says Pratt.
the toll it takes
Eight years after Pratt did her initial
research, she re-interviewed the same
women to see how they had settled into
Canada after completing the program.
“Deskilling was one of the main issues
they faced,” Pratt says, explaining that
the women have few resources to upgrade their skills here because they send
much of their money back home to their
feature 15
families. “Many are single mothers who
came to Canada because they couldn’t
earn a living wage back home,” she says.
“But how do you balance the material
benefits with the losses of not being with
their family?”
In the last stage of her research, Pratt
did look at the emotional toll of family
separation and then reunification. “We
looked at what the issues are for youth
when they join their mothers in Canada,”
she says. “In some cases, many work hard
and regain a relationship. But that’s not
always the case. When we looked at all
the years of separation, which could be
five to six years tied up in the LCP [even
up to eight if you count that some of the
women went to work in places like Hong
Kong and Singapore first], the children
roll in as teenagers, and it’s hard to regain parental authority.”
Pratt adds that those caregivers who
are married and left their husbands back
home often end up divorced. “With the
long years of separation, it’s not surprising that marriages break up.”
The stories go on.
The idea to turn them into a play where
the women’s interviews are used verbatim
is a good way to bring more attention to
the plight of live-in caregivers, according
to Hetty Alcuitas, a board member of the
Philippine Women Centre of B.C. “It’s a
cations of LCP participants in light of the
sacrifices they make. “But whether that
principle of flexibility has been followed
has been at issue ever since,” he says,
citing a recent case of his that involved a
caregiver, Juana Tejada, who was stricken
by cancer while in Canada and was slated
for deportation because her illness would
put an unreasonable demand on Canada’s
health care system. “In Jauna’s case, that
wasn’t flexibility. That wasn’t lenience,”
he says. “It was just ridiculous to kick her
out at that point in time, after she’d been
in the program for so many years, and
had developed the cancer after coming to
Canada. “There are lots of problems in
the program.”
Still, Fabregas doesn’t recommend
shutting the program down completely, as
some caregiver advocate groups call for.
When hearing that the federal government has stated it is trying to improve the
program, he says, “Well, good, it’s about
time. But let’s wait and see.”
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, on Nov. 14, 2008, it
introduced a change whereby temporary
foreign workers and live-in caregivers in
Canada who apply for a work permit for
a new employer now receive priority over
work permit extensions with the same
employer. And Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said he’s further reviewing
“Many [caregivers] are single mothers who came to
Canada because they couldn’t earn a living wage back
home. But how do you balance the material benefits with
the losses of not being with their family?”
— Geraldine Pratt
good opportunity to bring some more dialogue and debate around the program. It
allows us to see the program in terms of
the human rights violations against these
women,” says Alcuitas.
“There have been about 100,000 women who have come under the LCP and
the Foreign Domestic Worker Movement
[the predecessor program], and we’re
seeing what the long-term impact of the
program is, with long family separations
and difficult reunifications and economic
marginalization,” Alcuitas adds. “The
community is having difficulty in terms
of settlement and integration. [After the
program], the women are streamlined
into low-paying, service-sector jobs, often
still doing domestic work and childcare.”
Underlying unfairness
There’s an underlying unfairness that
taints so many aspects of the program.
Rafael Fabregas, an immigration lawyer
with Mamann and Sandaluk in Toronto,
says live-in caregivers are “probably one of
the worst treated workers in Canada. Not
just by the employers, but it’s just a question of the value placed on them; there is
very little value placed on them, yet they
provide so much to Canadian families.”
Fabregas says there is case law from the
early 1990s that calls for the immigration
department to be lenient and flexible in
processing the permanent residency appli-
the LCP. “I want to ensure the women are
not being exploited, and make sure there
are appropriate protections in place,” he
says. He also wants to ensure the women
understand their rights and know where
they can turn for help.
Pratt points out, however, that even
though the program may not look so bad
on paper, the reality that these women
live with is very different.
One solution could be changing the program from a temporary workers’ program
to one that brings in caregivers on conditional permanent residence, similar to
entrepreneurs. “That’s a good idea,” says
Fabregas. “If they prove for two to three
years that they’ve worked as caregivers,
they could be given conditional permanent residence and cancel the conditions
later,” Nearly 100 per cent of the women
in the program apply to stay in Canada
permanently anyway, he says.
Then again, groups like SIKLAB are
simply petitioning for the program to be
shut down.
“I’m not one of those who believe we
should shut the LCP down,” says Minister Kenney, who adds that he plans to
hold a roundtable on the program this
year. “It’s still a popular program on
both the supply and demand side.”
But to hear Duran tell it, “The women
would be better off going to work in Hong
Kong instead of Canada.”
Registration of Canadians Abroad:
New Upgraded System
Why register?
So that we can contact and assist you in case of an emergency abroad
or inform you of an emergency at home.
Who should register?
All Canadians travelling or living abroad.
What’s different about the new system?
The improved system allows you to better manage and update your own
information* online.
What if I’ve already registered?
If you registered before December 14, 2008, you MUST register again
in order to receive further safety and security updates.
How do I register?
You can register online at www.travel.gc.ca/register or by
contacting a Canadian government office abroad.
For more information, call
1-800-267-6788 (in Canada and the U.S.),
1-800-394-3472 (TTY), or 613-944-6788.
*Information obtained through registration is confidential and is used in accordance
with the provisions of the Privacy Act.
Nouveau système amélioré
d’inscription des Canadiens à l’étranger
Pourquoi s’inscrire?
Pour que nous puissions communiquer avec vous et vous aider en cas
d’urgence à l’étranger ou vous informer d’une urgence au Canada.
Qui devrait s’inscrire?
Tous les Canadiens qui voyagent ou qui habitent à l’étranger.
En quoi le nouveau système est-il différent?
Le système amélioré vous permet de mieux gérer vos renseignements
personnels* et d’en effectuer la mise à jour en ligne.
Que faire si je me suis déjà inscrit?
Si vous avez fait votre inscription avant le 14 décembre 2008, vous
DEVEZ vous réinscrire pour recevoir les mises à jour concernant
la sécurité.
Comment s’inscrire?
Vous pouvez vous inscrire en ligne à :
www.voyage.gc.ca/inscription
ou auprès d’un bureau du gouvernement du Canada à l’étranger.
Pour de plus amples renseignements, composez
le 1-800-267-6788 (au Canada et aux États-Unis),
1-800-394-3472 (ATS) ou le 613-944-6788.
*Les renseignements fournis sont confidentiels et utilisés conformément à la
Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels.
February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
16 Money
TA X TIME SPECI A L
Tax tricks
T
Canadian Immigrant’s Financial Planning columnist Rob Radloff offers
an update on new ways to reduce your taxes
here are always ways to reduce the
income taxes you owe if you know
the rules. Here are three tax considerations to notice this season.
TAX LOSS CARRYBACK
Capital losses realized in non-registered
accounts during the 2008 calendar year
can be carried back against gains realized in any of the last three years (20052007). The last day to trigger losses is
Dec. 24. Note, however, that the loss
will be disallowed if the investment sold
is bought back within 30 days of the sale
date.
TAX-FREE SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
All Canadian residents 18 years or older
will be eligible to contribute up to $5,000
annually to a tax-free savings account
(TFSA), starting in January 2009. Any
unused contribution room plus net withdrawals can be carried forward to future
years.
Contributions to a TFSA are not tax
deductible, as are registered retirement
savings plans (RRSPs). However, similar to an RRSP, all income earned in a
TFSA is tax-free. And withdrawals from
a TFSA is tax-free (with RRSPs, withdrawals are taxable).
Pension Splitting
If you are under the age of 65, income
eligible for the pension income tax credit
that can be split with your spouse is basi-
Your first steps
Landed in 2008? These are your obligations as a new Canadian
E
very year, thousands of immigrants
make Canada their new home. But
living in a different country can be a major
adjustment — especially if you are from a
country without income taxes.
“Even if you are new to Canada, the
Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) expects
you to comply with your tax obligations,”
says Cleo Hamel, a senior tax analyst with
H&R Block (hrblock.ca). “It is important
to find out your residency status under the
CRA rules and what this means to your
tax return.”
People entering Canada can be classified as non-residents or they may be
deemed residents or part-year residents,
depending on how long they stay here and
whether or not they establish residential
ties. People who immigrate to Canada on
a permanent basis are usually considered
part-year residents for tax purposes. Partyear residents are taxed on their world income from the date of entry so all income
earned in a tax year must be reported.
Permanent residents must also get a
social insurance number to file.
“Every new Canadian needs to apply for
a social insurance number (SIN) as soon
CanadianImmigrant.ca
as they arrive,” explains Hamel. “You will
need a SIN to file a tax return and qualify
for tax credits.”
Part-year residents may be entitled to
the GST credit after their arrival. Parents
should also complete a Child Tax Benefit
Form.
“If you have investments or holdings
outside of Canada, you need to establish
Fair Market Value (FMV) for it as soon as
you arrive,” adds Hamel. “Your tax obligations will be calculated based on the FMV
on the date you entered Canada. If not,
you could be facing a larger than necessary tax bill.”
— News Canada
Save your
soccer receipts
Last year, the federal government
introduced a new non-refundable
children’s fitness tax credit that can be
claimed for fees (up to $500) paid to
enrol children under the age of 16 in
certain physical activity programs.
February 2009
cally limited to income from a registered
pension plan, including income from an
individual pension plan (IPP).
If you have reached age 65, income
eligible for the pension income tax credit
that can be split with your spouse, includes the following;
• life annuity payments from a superannuation or pension fund or plan
• annuity payments under an RRSP
• taxable amounts from a registered
retirement income fund (RRIF) or life
income fund (LIF)
• the income portion of certain annuities,
including prescribed annuities
Note that both the individual receiving the eligible pension income and his
or her spouse or common-law partner
must agree to the allocation in their tax
returns.
Keep your
transit passes
Any receipts for passes on public
transit that are valid for a month or
more can be claimed as a nonrefundable tax credit on your tax
returns for 2006 and beyond. You can
also claim the receipts of your spouse
and children under 19. Ensure you
have these receipts when filing your
tax return.
Money 17
Getting started
Forms, resources and more
and rules you can apply that will reduce
the taxes you owe.
Check with your community immigrant settlement societies, too, as many
offer income tax clinics.
FILING OPTIONS
A
s the April 30 tax filing date approaches, you may be wondering
how to get started on preparing your
tax return.
FORMS
First, you can get the necessary tax
forms, the General Income Tax and Benefit Guide, from any post office or Canada
Revenue Agency (CRA) tax services office, or call CRA at 1-800-959-2221. Ensure you get the forms for the year 2008
and for the province or territory where
you lived on Dec. 31, 2008. Tax rates and
tax credits are different in each province
and territory, so it is important to use
the correct forms book.
RESOURCES
CRA also has a special publication, T4055
— Newcomers to Canada – 2008 to explain the tax system to recent newcomers.
Check it out on the CRA website (cra-arc.
gc.ca) under “Forms and Publications.”
If your income is low and your tax
situation is simple, specially trained volunteers at CRA can help you to fill out
your tax return (call 1-800-959-8281 for
more information).
If it’s more complicated — for example,
you’re self-employed — you should seek
the assistance of a tax preparer or accountant. There are many deductions
You can fill in the tax form manually
and mail it in, along with copies of your
receipts and so on. But these days,
many people fill out their income tax
electronically through the CRA website
(cra-arc.gc.ca) using its NETFILE option (receipts don’t have to be mailed
in with this option). If you’re using the
services of a tax preparer company, it
may use the EFILE option to file your
taxes. Note that newcomers who landed
in 2008 are not yet eligible for NETFILE
or EFILE.
Contributing to an RRSP is an effective way of reducing your
taxes and saving for your future
Identification
It is important that you complete the entire identification area on page 1 of your
tax return. This information is used to
assess your return and calculate your
goods and services tax/harmonized sales
tax (GST/HST) credit, plus any benefits
to which you may be entitled under the
Canada Child Tax Benefit.
If you landed in Canada in 2008, you
must also enter the date you arrived in
the appropriate area on page 1 of your
tax return.
While a social insurance number
(SIN) is necessary for tax filing, what
happens if you’ve applied for your SIN,
but have not yet received it and the
tax filing deadline is here? File your
return without a SIN to avoid the latefiling penalty and interest charges.
Include a note to explain that you
have requested, but not yet received
a SIN.
BIGGER
Be Canadian
an
Choose Canadi
Tool for savings
REFUNDS
S
aving for your future may not seem
like a priority after first landing in
Canada — you’re probably more preoccupied with settling in and making
ends meet today. But tax season brings
with it an opportunity to start thinking about saving for your retirement,
and reducing your taxes, to boot. A
Registered Retirement Savings Plan
(RRSP) is a tool you can use toward
both goals.
What is an RRSP?
An RRSP is a personal savings plan that
allows you to build a retirement income
for your future while giving you immediate tax benefits today. The money, which is
invested, grows tax-sheltered until you are
71 years old. You only begin to pay taxes on
the amount after you start withdrawing.
When to file
The tax filing deadline for your 2008
tax return is April 30, 2009. If you
have any self-employment income,
your filing deadline is June 15,
however any amount owing has to be
paid by April 30.
By contributing to an RRSP, you essentially reduce your taxable income for
the current year. For the 2008 tax year,
you can contribute to an RRSP up until
60 days after the end of the year — this
year, the deadline for RRSP contributions is March 2, 2009.
Continued on p. 18
Did
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•
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February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
18 Money
Continued from p. 17
How to get one
You set up an RRSP account through
a financial institution such as a bank,
credit union, trust or insurance company. Your financial institution will
advise you on the types of RRSP and the
investments they can contain.
Your Limit
There is, however, a limit on how much
you can contribute each year. If you filed
a return last year, your allowable RRSP
contribution is shown on the latest
Notice of Assessment, Notice of Reassessment, or on a T1028 — Your RRSP
Information for 2008, that CRA sent you
after processing your 2007 return. CRA’s
maximum annual contribution limit for
2008, is $20,000.
But if you did not use all of your RRSP
contribution limit for the years 19912007, you can carry forward the unused
amount to 2008.
You may also want to set up a spousal or common-law partner RRSP. The
higher-income spouse contributes to an
RRSP for a lower-income spouse. The
contributor receives the short-term
benefit of the tax deduction for the contributions, while the annuitant, who is
likely to be in a lower tax bracket during retirement, receives the income and
reports it on his or her tax return.
Tax software
Did you know that more than half of the
returns filed with the Canada Revenue
Agency last year were filed electronically?
More and more people are choosing
electronic preparation and filing of income
tax returns (via Netfile). If you want to go
the electronic route, there are several tax
software packages available to help you.
TaxTron (taxtron.ca)
TaxTron is a Canadian-based software,
and one of the only ones that is available
for both PC and Mac platforms. It uses a
step-by-step approach, and can be
bought in stores or downloaded via its
website.
QuickTax (quicktax.intuit.ca)
Don’t ignore
worldwide income
Residents of Canada are subject to
tax on their worldwide income and will
receive tax credits for tax paid on
foreign income to foreign governments. Part or all of the income may
be exempt from Canadian tax if
Canada has a tax treaty with the
country in which you earned the
income.
CanadianImmigrant.ca
Intuit’s QuickTax is the best-selling tax
preparation software in Canada, and is
available in CD and downloadable
versions. It is for Windows-based
operating systems only.
Ufile (Ufile.ca)
Ufile, like QuickTax, uses the interview
method to lead users through the taxpreparation process. It is available in CD
and downloadable versions, for Windowsbased operating systems only.
[Note: Canada Revenue Agency provides a
list of “certified” tax programs each year.]
February 2009
More than taxes
Filing a tax return can bring benefits for your family
O
ne of the many reasons for filing an
income tax return is ensuring you
get the most out of the tax benefits to
which you may be entitled. For Canadian
families, there are many benefits.
For example, you could be getting:
• a tax-free Canada Child Tax Benefit
in the form of a monthly payment for children who are under the age of 18
• a taxable, guaranteed Universal
Child Care Benefit of $100 per month per
child up to the age of six
• a tax-free Child Disability Benefit for
families who care for a child under the age
of 18 with a severe and prolonged impairment in mental or physical functions
• a goods and services tax/harmonized
sales tax (GST/HST) credit, which helps
individuals and families with low or modest incomes to offset all or part of the GST
or HST that they pay on most purchases
of goods and services
• a Working Income Tax Benefit for
families with low incomes
To maximize your benefits and
ensure that payments continue, you
must file an income tax and benefit
return. The Canada Revenue Agency
(CRA) needs to know your most recent
address, marital status and the number of children in your care, as well as
banking information for direct deposit
of amounts that are owed to you.
If you need help preparing your income tax return, the CRA has volunteers
who may be able to assist you.
The best way to view and manage
your profile with the CRA is to set up an
account online through its My Account
service. Once you register, you can view
and manage your tax and benefit information, and apply for the Canada Child
Tax Benefit and the Universal Child
Care Benefit.
To find out more about child and
family benefits, go to cra.gc.ca/benefits, or call 1-800-387-1193 for English
service and 1-800-387-1194 for French
service. — News Canada
Check canadianimmigrant.ca for
the first instalment of this four-part
series leading up to tax season,
and check back in March and April
for the third and fourth instalments
of our Tax Time Special.
Culture 19
Connecting
through culture
Hernan Astudillo and members of
San Lorenzo Latin American Community
Centre reach out to communities in
Central America through the Caravan of
Hope project.
Community centre helps Latin American
immigrants preserve their cultural identities
and support each other
By Gloria Elayadathusseril
H
ernan Astudillo encountered a
number of challenges when he
arrived as a refugee to Canada from
a politically unstable Ecuador. As a
newcomer, he was faced with language
barriers, cultural differences and basic
survival issues. His livelihood depended
on the little money he made as a subway
musician in the first few years after his
arrival in 1992.
These ordeals not only taught him
many valuable lessons, but also made
him commit to help other Hispanic immigrants to the country. As a first step,
Astudillo founded the San Lorenzo
Latin American Community Centre
a decade ago, to serve as a cultural
melting pot for immigrants from more
than 20 Latin American countries.
“We come from diverse countries with
different cultures, traditions, food and
political situations,” observes Astudillo,
an anthropologist in his native country
and an ordained Anglican priest here
in Canada. “We strive to preserve, promote and share this diversity through
this centre.”
One of the popular activities of the
centre is an annual multicultural festival it organizes at Christie Pits Park
in Toronto. About 50,000 festivalgoers
participate in the fun event, according
to Astudillo.
Another spinoff of the centre is a radio
station, Radio Voces Latinas 1610 AM,
which caters to the large Hispanic community in the Greater Toronto Area. “It
is the first community radio station in
Canada devoted to the Spanish-speaking
community,” Astudillo notes. Programming includes segments on a variety of
topics such as health, immigration, law,
music and news.
The centre, located at 22 Wenderly
Dr. in Toronto, also offers free or lowcost immigration services through a
team of lawyers from within the community, vocation-related workshops
for youth and cultural orientation
advice to newcomers. It also operates
a food bank on Wednesdays. Today the
centre has close to 300 active and 500
occasional members.
“We are also planning to build a
home for seniors in the future. So far
we have been a self-supporting group.
But we will be looking for government
funding,” he adds.
Aside from uplifting the local community, the centre reaches out to communities in Central America through
its Caravan of Hope project. It sends
busloads of medical, food and school supplies to countries including El Salvador,
Guatemala and Nicaragua.
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Canadian Immigrant
20 Health
| Living Healthy |
Stressbusters
Don’t let stress lead to poor health
T
here is a universal health problem
that occurs among all ages, cultures and countries. It is an underlying
factor in many illnesses and deaths,
and is the subject of a lot of media attention, yet so many of us suffer from
it. I am talking about stress — a deceptively short name for a prevalent disorder that affects our physical, mental
and emotional well-being.
As new immigrants, we are particularly prone to stress, which we face
too often in finding a job, making new
friends, fitting into a new culture or coping with the winter.
What is it?
Stress is defined as the consequences
that occur when the human body fails
to respond appropriately to emotional
or physical threats, whether actual or
imagined. The factors leading to stress
— termed as “stressors” — can be major
life events like job losses, divorce or even
minor daily hassles like traffic congestion. Not surprisingly, incidence of stress
has been found to be more frequent in
women than men, and women also have
a larger variety of stressors.
Physical reaction
When faced with a stressor, the body
responds with a fight or flight reaction,
which releases adrenaline, a natural
body chemical. This is the initial stage
of stress response. The muscles tense,
the heart races, mouth dries and we
may break into a sweat. The intensity of
the response differs among people, and
understanding our individual response
is a necessary step in learning how to
deal with it.
Stress is unavoidable, but it’s important to manage it because, according to
a Statistics Canada report called Stress,
Health and the Benefit of Social Support,
it may be a precursor to poor health.
Adults with high stress had higher
odds of developing a number of chronic
conditions within six years. For both
sexes, these conditions included arthritis, high blood pressure, back problems,
respiratory problems, and stomach or
intestinal ulcers. For men, they also
included heart disease; for women,
asthma and migraine. Stress also leads
to many psychological disorders like depression and anxiety.
How to cope
So how should we, as new immigrants, cope
with stress? Here are a few helpful stressbusters, based on my own experience:
• Be organized. Set priorities, and plan
your time and tasks well. Make a realistic
household budget. Set realistic and
achievable goals and work toward them.
• Be open and positive in your
communication. Honest and courteous
communication with loved ones, coworkers and others can reduce friction
and stress.
• Develop a hobby. There is more to life
than just work and home. Take up a new
activity that will engage your mind and
spirit.
• Live life your own way. It can be
difficult to break away from peer pressure
or unrealistic expectations of ourselves.
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CanadianImmigrant.ca
February 2009
We need to realize we all have unique
personalities and skills, so do not become
obsessed by what others have or do.
• Develop a strong support system.
Invest some time and effort in developing
friends who will provide you with support
and comfort.
There are also many books written on coping with stress that may help. Professional
help, including medications, may be other
options for people with severe levels of
stress. The first step in managing stress,
however, is in acknowledging it and then
resolving to create a well-adjusted and
balanced state of health.
Stress in numbers
44%
38%
31%
Percentage of Canadians who
reported time pressure as a
major stressor in their lives.
Those who reported financial
problems as stressful.
Those who were stressed because they felt others expected
too much of them.
[Source: Statistics Canada]
Chitra Ayyar is a clinical researcher who moved to Canada in 2004 from
Mumbai, India, where she was a family practitioner for many years.
Health 21
Measuring wellness
A new health survey may help identify
ethnic-specific health concerns Gloria Elayadathusseril
By
A
pproximately 350 residents from
central Toronto and the immigrantconcentrated East York and Scarborough
regions are among 5,000 pre-selected
participants in a new national survey
that will help evaluate the health needs
of Canadians from all ethnicities.
This Statistics Canada survey — Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) —
is said to be the most extensive national
study on physical health measures conducted in the country. It is also expected
to address longstanding gaps within
Canada’s health surveillance system.
According to the federal department,
the survey will provide “a broad portrait
of the health of Canadians” by gathering
data on everything from cardiovascular
health, nutritional status, as well as exposure to chronic and infectious diseases
and environmental contaminants.
“The combination of interviews and
physical measurements will produce
more accurate statistics about the general health of Canadians than have ever
been available before,” says Jeanine
Bustros, director of Statistics Canada’s
physical health measures division.
Policy makers, provincial health
departments, researchers and health
professionals from many fields have
expressed a need for a national, comprehensive source of accurate health measurements to assist them in addressing
the health needs of Canadians, which
are changing as ethnic demographics
change.
The data collection includes a personal
interview with participants addressing
questions on diet, medical history, health
status and lifestyle. Participants also get
measured for height, weight, blood pressure, pulmonary capacity, cardiovascular
health, nutritional status and more.
The survey has the potential to offer a
much sharper perspective on the health
of Canadians at a national level, says
Dr. David McKeown, medical officer
of health for Toronto Public Health. “I
hope the survey’s results will provide a
point of comparison that public health
agencies can use when developing policies and prevention programs.”
The first cycle of data collection in 15 regions in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick,
British Columbia and Alberta, concludes
at the end of this month. A second cycle
is scheduled to begin in August. Though
CHMS representatives have said the regions were picked randomly, several of the
locations are heavily populated with immigrants from around the world. Also, the
participant’s country of birth is one of the
questions in the survey. This might help
identify ethnic-specific health concerns.
Though CHMS representatives have
said the regions were picked randomly,
several of the locations are heavily populated with immigrants from around the
world. Also, the participant’s country
of birth is one of the questions in the
survey. This might help identify ethnicspecific health concerns.
“I certainly think the clinical tests
would reveal some of the health issues
peculiar to immigrants and newcomers,”
observes Patricia Dabiri of Reach Community Health Centre, a multicultural family
health provider in Vancouver. “Past studies
[for example] have found diabetes common
in African, Latin American, South Asian
and Vietnamese origin people.”
Dabiri, however, believes language
could be a barrier during interviews
with participants who are new immigrants, and the resulting data may not
be accurate.
The survey’s findings will be available on a national basis beginning in
early 2010.
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February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
22 Business
Tamil takeout
Restaurateur Kandiah Rajakulasingham proves that
perseverance and commitment paired with clever
ideas are the main ingredients to success
By Caroline Fernandez
T
ucked into a plaza at Sheppard
Avenue East, Babu’s Catering and
Takeout isn’t easily seen from the road.
But just about every person who has
been to this Tamil fast-food pickup restaurant in Scarborough, Ontario,
finds his or her way back. Babu’s
features Tamil favourites like
vadas and kothu roti, alongside
an array of dishes associated with
north Indian, Chinese and other
cultures, like butter chicken and
sweet-and-sour chicken.
But is there a real “Babu”
behind the restaurant?
It’s owner Kandiah
Rajakulasingham —
better known as
Babu Rajakul.
He arrived in
Canada with
his
family as Tamil
refugees
in
1987, after leaving
behind the war-torn
region of Jaffna.
“We arrived here with just passports;
no money,” Rajakul remembers. Canadian government services arranged welcome housing for Rajakul and his family.
“We spent our first two months here on
social assistance.”
He got his first job at a bank and
was the only Tamil person at
the office. “I started as a clerk
at Credit Swiss Canada bank
and was promoted to handling
balances and eventually foreign
exchange.”
But with no extended family and
no money to spare for babysitters,
his wife stayed home to take
care of their son and daughter,
while he looked for a second
job so they could survive.
“I started delivering papers in the mornings for
Toronto Star. On the weekends, I used to work as a
security guard — before
going on my paper route.”
With a 175-paper route
at Brimley and Lawrence,
a weekend security job
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February 2009
Babu’s Catering and Takeout offers many Tamil favourites such as string hoppers and kothu roti
and an array of dishes associated with north Indian, Chinese and other cultures.
and a daily bank clerk position, Rajakul
still found that there wasn’t enough
money coming in.
“I needed a change at that time,” he
explains. Seeing a bright opportunity
in catering, Rajakul teamed up with his
wife and started his business by cooking
from their basement apartment.
With a bit of careful saving and collecting a portion of income from the
weddings they catered, Rajakul opened
his takeout restaurant and left the bank,
seven years after he first started.
At 1,100 square feet, there was enough
space for moving room, counter space
and a back kitchen for preparation, that’s
it. He dedicated many hours to takeout
and catering, delivering up to 150 boxes
of string hoppers (a rice-noodle dish) to
about 40 stores a week while his wife
looked after the restaurant.
The demand for string hoppers grew,
and Rajakul slowly brought on curries
and rotis to his menu. Yet from 1993
to around 1999, he kept struggling. “I
put all my time here and I didn’t enjoy
my kids’ childhood,” he admits. “If you
want to gain something you also have
to lose a lot.”
At one point Rajakul even tried to
sell the restaurant to end the constant
struggle. But, in 2002, he started to
see a change for good. “When there’s
a change, you’ve got to catch it,” he
explains. He came up with a business
plan to expand the restaurant in size
and sophistication. As a result, popularity has increased tremendously.
Today, Rajakul has a team that consists of 30 employees and the business
grosses $1.1 million a year. He opened
a second takeout location, in Markham,
Ontario, in mid-January, while holding
onto dreams of opening a fine-dining
Tamil restaurant in the near future.
Rajakul’s business experience in Canada drives him to share his knowledge
and lessons with others. He motivates
employees to work hard in order to gain a
good life in Canada. He hasn’t forgotten
his roots, either, and shares a close bond
with the community that continuously
supports him and his restaurant.
He regularly donates food and money
to schools, associations and community
events. In his own way, Rajakul believes
the restaurant is his chance to express
his gratitude to Canada. “I’m really
looking for an opportunity to pay back
Canada, because when I came to Canada,
the country and people helped not just
me, but my Tamil community.”
Business 23
| small business |
pessimism to crush the opportunity,
and you may be able to hatch a plan
that harnesses the enthusiasm of
youth and the wisdom of your experienced staff.
Be realistic
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Managing a new generation
How to handle Gen Y in the workplace
R
ecently I’ve read many articles
and had several conversations
about managing in a multi-generation
1/13/09
PM
workforce.1:49
The accepted
wisdom is that
the generation currently entering the
workplace, often described as “Gen Y”
or “Gen Z,” has a strong sense of entitlement and is short on loyalty, so it’s difficult to motivate them or work alongside
them if you come from a different generation or a different background.
As someone who fits into the tail end of
Gen X, but has social connections to some
of these Gen Y workers, I’d like to offer a
slightly different perspective and perhaps
some tips for making a multi-generation
workplace more harmonious.
Tap into a new perspective
The most important thing to remember
is that employees of any age wish to be
recognized and respected for their abilities and talents.
A senior employee with decades of
experience has a lot of wisdom to draw
upon based on what they’ve seen and ac-
complished. It often seems like younger
workers have a hard time respecting
their elders and expect to be treated
with the same deference and privilege
as their more experienced colleagues.
While this may irritate or even outrage
employers or co-workers, there is an
opportunity to tap into the energy and
passion of these younger workers.
Their fresh perspective and outlook,
as well as their creativity and problemsolving skills, offer something different
and valuable to employers who take the
time to listen to younger workers. If you
are seeking solutions to obstacles or
problems that have blocked your growth
or success as a business, you may find
that a young worker has a unique suggestion to offer.
Of course, take this suggestion and
run it through the “filter” of more experienced workers, without allowing
But be realistic about what you expect
from your younger workers, and what
you offer in return. Keep in mind that
money is not the biggest motivator for
most people — employees repeatedly
report that they want to feel included
and respected by likable co-workers.
Offer f lexibility any way you can,
either through shift schedules or
allowing people to work from home
if that is feasible in your industry.
A young person who is new to the
workplace may want to try out many
things before settling into a career;
this diversity of experience is valuable in itself, although it may look
inconsistent on a resumé.
Hire right
Finally, when hiring, remember the
old saying: “Hire for attitude, train for
skill.” Use the recruitment process to
get to know how potential employees
think and feel about work. Let them
see what it’s really like to work for
you, and let them ask questions of
their potential co-workers. Getting the
right personality for your business is
almost more important than getting
someone with the right skills.
Remember it’s much harder to dismiss someone than it is to hire the
right person at the start, but if you
do get to the point where you realize
you have a worker that doesn’t fit
(whether old or young), do everyone a favour and end
the employment fairly
and cleanly.
Susan Low is principal consultant of Directis Consulting Group. She
works with many Canadian immigrant entrepreneurs to improve their
small-business operations. See directis.ca.
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Canadian Immigrant
24 Settlement
| Dear Faizal |
Lost that loving feeling
DEAR FAIZAL:
My husband and I are
landed immigrants from Morocco. We
have two children, 6 and 1. Lately, my
husband has been complaining that we
don’t have enough sex, and, when we
do, I don’t seem to enjoy it. I love him
and enjoyed making love to him in the
past (before becoming a mother). But
these days I don’t have that sexual energy or interest. What can I do to increase
my sex drive?
— FROM NO SEX IN THE CITY
DEAR NO SEX:
As a mother, you’re
probably juggling many responsibilities — cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, trips to the park, dropping off and
picking up one child from school while
trying to find the time to breastfeed the
other, and so on. At night you literally
drop into bed from exhaustion, only
to be awoken by your partner’s plea,
“Honey, wanna do it tonight?”
You may be wondering how making
love, something you once eagerly anticipated, could fall so low in your list
of priorities. More importantly, how can
you get the “feeling” back?
One’s level of sexual desire, or libido,
is determined by a collection of physiological, psychological and emotional
circumstances. While an imbalance in
any one of these leads to a disinterest in
sex, nurturing all three simultaneously
results in an overall healthy relationship for a couple.
To improve your sex life and romantic life in general, try the following five
tips:
1 Eat well. Eat balanced meals, high
in fruits and vegetables (preferably
organic). For added energy, take zinc
supplements (consult your doctor first)
or snack on foods high in zinc. Oysters,
for example, are high in zinc, hence,
their popularity as an aphrodisiac.
2 Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep
makes us cranky, and no one feels
“in the mood” when they’re crabby. If
your little one is sleeping in the room
with you and your husband, alternate
sleeping arrangements — one night
you sleep with baby, the next night you
sleep alone. Whenever possible, take
cat naps throughout the day.
3 Exercise. Exercising is wonderful for
the mind, body and soul. You could go
jogging outdoors with your baby in the
stroller. Since most community centres
today offer mother-baby pilates/yoga/
stretching classes, you could register
yourself for one of these and get a
cardiovascular workout and bond with
your baby at the same time. No excuses,
right?
4 Go shopping. Studies show that shop-
ping helps your body produce endorphins, a “happy” hormone (also produced
during sex) that makes you feel good.
Invest in some sexy outfits. Remember,
when you look sexy, you feel sexy, and
when you feel sexy, you are more inclined
to act upon those feelings.
5 Change roles. For at least one evening
each week, trade in your mother’s apron
for a lady’s evening dress. The objective
is for you to reconnect with your husband,
not as parents, but as lovers. Arrange for
a babysitter, make reservations at your
favourite restaurant and plan to paint the
town red. Once home, dim the lights, take
a warm, candlelit bath together and then
take turns giving each other a long, sensuous massage.
Maintaining a healthy and nurturing
sex life can sometimes be challenging
amidst the various responsibilities in
our lives, but if we commit ourselves
to creating intimacy, both within
ourselves and with our partner, the
mere sight of our significant other
will no doubt get our juices
f lowing for many years
to come.
Dr. Faizal Sahukhan, PhD, is a registered counsellor, an instructor at Capilano University, an advice columnist on CBC Radio Canada International, a
media consultant and an author. Visit him at multiculturalromance.com.
Ask the Experts
Did you know
that Dr. Faizal
Sahukhan is also
our online
Relationship
Expert at
canadianimmigrant.ca?
Read more of his advice
on love, family and
relationships; just click
on “Ask the Experts” on
our home page.
CanadianImmigrant.ca
February 2009
WE’RE HERE TO HELP!
Ask the Experts
At canadianimmigrant.ca our experts
are ready to answer your questions
so that you and your family can start
Relationship Expert
Language Expert
Dr. Faizal Sahukhan, PhD
Bonnie Gross
Dr. Faizal Sahukhan, PhD, is a
registered counselor, an instructor
at Capilano University, an advice
columnist on CBC Radio Canada
International, a media consultant
and an author.
Bonnie is president of SpeechScience
International — a company devoted to
helping people “nd their voices” in Canada
through acculturation in the workplace and
professional speaking skills.
Education Expert
Manisha Burman
Immigration Law Expert
Jean Cavanagh
Money Expert
Massood Joomratty
Jean — with 21 years of
experience in a university
environment (admission
processing is her specialty)
— knows getting accepted to the
right school is important.
Manisha has a broad range of nancial
service experience. Manisha also ran an
online multicultural marketing company
and provided career counseling to new
Canadians. She leads RBC’s strategy and
initiatives for new Canadians.
Born in Mauritius and educated in
England, Massood holds a bachelor
law degree (LLB Hons.) and a
masters in law (LLM).
Employment Law Expert
Career Expert
Ask Nick
Daniel A. Lublin
Vikki Mungre
Naeem ‘Nick’ Noorani
Daniel is a lawyer who practices
exclusively in both employment
and human rights law.
Vikki is an employment
consultant in Toronto and
is known as the “Immigrant
Coach” by those he has helped.
Nick is the founder and publisher
of Canadian Immigrant magazine
and canadianimmigrant.ca.
building a successful life in Canada. And
it’s free! Submit your question today at
canadianimmigrant.ca/asktheexperts
Visit
today!
26 Settlement
| Immigration Law |
No added value
Changes to the skilled worker program don’t make it a healthier option
F
or years, I have called the federal
skilled worker application the
“white bread” of all immigration
applications. It serves a purpose, is
commonly used and offers no real
benefit compared to “multigrain”
and “high fibre” applications like
provincial nominees or sponsored
spouses. Late in 2008, Jason Kenney,
the minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, issued
instructions to improve the skilled
worker class — which is as effective
as toasting white bread to increase its
nutritional value.
Under the minister’s instructions,
all skilled worker applications filed
after Feb. 27, 2008, will be assessed
using specific guidelines, designed to
prioritize applicants likely to find a job
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in Canada and to weed out those who
are not. The estimated 800,000 applications filed before Feb. 27, 2008, will
remain languishing at visa posts until
processed.
Who now qualifies?
For the new skilled worker applications,
three different filters will be used to
determine the likelihood an applicant
will find work and settle successfully
in Canada. The first is an occupation
list issued by the minister, the second is
the existence of arranged employment
and the third is an examination of an
applicant’s status in Canada.
Obtaining 67 points on a skilled worker
assessment is no longer good enough; an
applicant must now also pass through
one of these three filters. If an applicant
fails to satisfy the new criteria, his or her
application will be returned, unprocessed
and with a full refund.
High-demand occupations
The real problem with this approach is
that unless the minister has a crystal
ball, there is no way of knowing that designated occupations will remain in high
demand.
We all know that past performance of
our economy in no way guarantees future
performance and we only need to look at
the recent massive job loss reports in sectors with these so-called “high-demand”
occupations to reach this conclusion. If
the minister has a crystal ball, it clearly
hasn’t been working very well. And while
the minister can amend or adjust the occupation list at any time, I have to wonder
how effective that approach will be; I liken
it to catching up with the past instead of
preparing for the future.
Job waiting
The second and third criteria make a lot
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The occupation list is a rigid compilation of what have been deemed by the
minister to be 38 high-demand occupations, ranging from financial managers to natural resource, construction,
food service and medical professionals,
among others. If an applicant has qualifying work experience in one of these
38 occupations, their application will be
welcomed and processed.
February 2009
more sense. If an applicant has an offer of
arranged employment, that is, a job offer
waiting for him or her upon becoming a
permanent resident, then that application
will be processed and prioritized. There is
no sense in denying a Canadian employer
an identified employee who will contribute to the success of a business.
Status in Canada
As for the third filter, if an applicant is
already in Canada and settled in as a
worker or student, they qualify and are
probably more likely to integrate successfully with fewer complications, which is
for the betterment of our country.
Policy in practice
Questions about the minister’s instructions have been debated for months,
and the controversy will continue as
the policy is put into practice. But, in
the end, the tinkering with the skilled
worker class only creates more uncertainty and confirms what I have been
writing about for the past couple of
years — if you are serious about immigrating to Canada and are thinking the skilled worker category, think
again. Look instead at things like
provincial nominee programs that have higher
added value.
Ryan N. Rosenberg, BA, LLB, is an immigration lawyer with Larlee
Rosenberg in Vancouver. Contact him at ryan.rosenberg@larlee.com or
604-681-9887, or visit larlee.com.
Settlement 27
Coast to Coast
North Bay
Your perfect fit?
North Bay boasts to be “just north enough to be perfect”
By Gloria Elayadathusseril
Immigrant Taslima Ahmed lives in North Bay.
joining the bandwagon of
smaller Ontario cities seeking to attract more newcomers and prospective
immigrants, with a motto, “just north
enough to be perfect.”
Though the city has been paying
special attention to the attraction, settlement and retention of immigrants
since 2005, it is now engaged in a rigorous immigration plan to counteract
skill shortages and an increase in its
senior and retirement population.
According to Marla Tremblay, who
works for the city, there are many opportunities for newcomers to take over
small and medium-sized businesses,
whose owners plan to retire soon.
This is in addition to the new opportunities arising from the new North
Bay Regional Health Centre. “There
are numerous positions available in
the health care field on an ongoing
basis. This need will only increase
with the advent of the new hospital,”
Tremblay says.
Demand for trained and skilled
workers is also prevalent in growth
sectors such as aerospace and aviation,
advanced manufacturing, informational and communications technology,
renewable energy and construction engineering. The tourism sector is also
strong in the region, and is in need of
trained individuals.
To address these requirements, the
mayor’s office of economic development and the Corporation of the City
of North Bay jointly prepared its immigration plan, after consulting various
stakeholders.
Anticipating big growth in the immigrant community, the city then
created a settlement agency, North
Bay Newcomers Network. Assisting
in the development of immigrant support networks, mentorship programs
and other support services are among
its goals, according to Mayor Victor
Fedeli.
The North Bay and District Multicultural Centre, which evolved from
the work of the Newcomers Network,
was launched in January last year
and is a reflection of the changing
North Bay is
face of the city.
“When I moved to North Bay, there
were no settlement centres here. I
couldn’t find people from my community,” says Taslima Ahmed, who
emigrated from Bangladesh in 2004.
“But now the city has become very
immigrant-friendly.”
A full-f ledged immigration web
portal is also on the horizon. The
website, being created with a portion of $1 million funding from the
provincial government allocated for
the region (which includes North
Bay, Smiths Falls and Timmins)
will be up and running by the end
of the year.
Ahmed observes that North Bay,
which is located approximately 300
kilometres north of Toronto on the
shore of Lake Nipissing, is, above all,
a beautiful and safe city to live in.
City Stats: North Bay
Population:
53,970
Median full-time earnings:
$40,948
Standard two-storey home:
$215,000 (as of June 2008)
Biggest employers:
Teletech, Boart Longyear Inc., Voyageur
Airways, TRG Customer Solutions, PGI
Fabrene
Top industries:
trade, telecommunications, manufacturing,
health care, forestry, fishing, mining,
oil and gas
Post-secondary institutions:
Nipissing University, Canadore College,
Collège Boréal
Weather:
lows from -18 C to highs of 24 C
Attractions:
While the Lake Nipissing waterfront is
North Bay’s flagship attraction, the city is
also home to the Dionne Quints Museum.
The 1934 birth of the Dionne Quintuplets
attracted three million visitors during the
peak of the depression.
[Sources: North Bay Community Profile and city.north-bay.on.ca]
Welcome to
SAULT STE. MARIE
DiscoverTheSault.ca will provide
visitors with vital information pertaining to living, working, learning and
getting started in Sault Ste. Marie.
Individuals will be able to find programs and services available to
them by all levels of government, local agencies and organizations and
also medical and educational institutions. A user can also research in
specific areas such as cost of living,
finding a home and cultural communities represented in Sault Ste.
Marie.
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DISCOVERTHESAULT.CA
T H E C I T Y ’ S N E W I M M I G R AT I O N P O R TA L
February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
28 Living
Love in the age of the internet
Why immigrant women are going online to find love this Valentine’s Day
D
ating. The mere mention of the word can be
enough to evoke blushing, warm feelings, terrible
memories or just plain-old stress, especially with the
pressure of Valentine’s Day this month.
For many single, educated immigrant women, dating
is something that doesn’t come up often in conversation. They are comfortable talking about their master’s
degrees, but they aren’t so comfortable sharing their
experience trying to find a husband.
Thirty-year-old Asa Azodi (name has been changed
for privacy) is now happily engaged. But five years ago,
she would have told you a different story. She had just
broken up with a longtime boyfriend in Iran and had
moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, to attend school. She
was willing to try dating someone outside her culture,
but she found the men she met in Regina were not as
open to dating someone outside theirs. After two years without any successful relationships, she registered with an online dating site.
Shortly after, she met a Canadian-born man from
Halifax, Nova Scotia, with whom she shared many
similarities. They started chatting regularly online,
and after 10 months her new friend visited her in Regina. She says after the in-person meeting, they knew
they were meant to be together, and after another 10
months Azodi decided to move to Halifax to be with
him while continuing her education there.
She now has her master’s degree and an engagement ring on her finger.
“My family never disagreed with whom I was dating, but deep inside I believe they would have been
happier to see me ending up with an Iranian guy than
a Canadian guy. Of course, I know this feeling has
changed over time when they got to know my fiancé
more and more,” she says.
Azodi is lucky; her family was willing to give her new
fiancé a chance. Many other young immigrant women
don’t have the same luxury.
Neelu Sachdev works at the Regina Immigrant
Women’s Centre. She came to Canada from India 30
years ago and has a 25-year-old daughter. While helping women find husbands is not part of her work duties,
it’s something she has unofficially been tasked with
over the years. She says many of
her friends come from traditional
families in Eastern countries and
are stressed that their daughters
are in their thirties and not yet
married.
“The women are encouraged
to get an education, but dating is
not something that is encouraged. The
women are getting older, finishing degrees
and are passing what their parents view as
the ‘marriageable age.’ If you ask their mothers
why, they’ll say ‘one became a lawyer, one got a PhD,
one got a master’s, and they are all working. They have
no time to meet a man. So if they didn’t meet a man in
By Nichole Huck
college, it’s too late,’” explains Sachdev.
“They’ve also been told they should marry an Indian
or a Pakistani or a Muslim. What I’m seeing right now
is these women are helplessly seeking men.”
So Sachdev says she tells the parents to ease their
standards a bit and broaden their search methods.
Perhaps the man won’t be from the same religion
or culture, but she stresses the important thing for
parents to remember is that their daughters will be
happiest with a man who will treat them well and is
well suited. “They need to have the same value systems, and educated women want a husband who is
equally educated,” Sachdev points out.
She also counsels these desperate mothers on the
benefits of online dating. She says that by going online their daughters may broaden the base of eligible
bachelors they meet.
And she’s seen proof that it works. Last month,
Sachdev attended a bridal shower for a woman at her
temple. The young woman had met her new husband
by using Facebook, the social networking site, where
she was introduced to a friend of friend. She started
chatting with the young Indian man living in Australia.
The young couple’s love grew online and earlier this month they
met in India to get married.
“Now that’s technology at
work!” laughs Sachdev.
My Story Michel Cubric
We arrived in Canada from Brazil on May 2, 1995. We had nothing but a dream — to
provide a better future for our four-year old son, Rodrigo, and to escape the violence
that was rampant in Rio de Janeiro.
I did not have any connections, so like a lot of newcomers I took on a number of
odd jobs in order to provide for my family. I cleaned the kitchen at the local Kentucky
Fried Chicken (and learned the secret recipe for their extra crispy chicken), sold
electronics at a small store and even tried delivering the morning paper.
I have to admit it was a big change for me; back in Brazil I was a senior flight attendant for Brazilian Airlines and travelled all over the world, always staying at fivestar hotels.
It did not take me long to realize that if I wanted to realize my dream I would have
to work hard, very hard. I went back to school (night school) and obtained a business
administration degree — four years of waking up at 5:30 a.m. to go to work and not
returning home until 10:30 p.m. Sometimes I would carry a bottle of water with me
CanadianImmigrant.ca
February 2009
so I could spray it on my face to keep me awake at
school. I then completed the Canadian Securities
Course, a master’s degree in business administration
and lots of other courses so I could compete in the job
market.
Today I am the director of operations for a large financial institution. We had two more children and I continue
to work toward realizing our dream. I am very thankful to
Canada for the opportunities I received, but as we say in
Brazil, “You cannot have the omelet without breaking the
eggs.” Perseverance is the name of the game and
any immigrant can do it!
Email your story to mjetelina@canadianimmigrant.ca.
careers 29
Career by design
National Engineering Month is a good time to assess
opportunities for internationally educated engineers
By Michael Mastromatteo
W
hile the engineering community prepares to celebrate the
profession with its annual National
Engineering Month activities, Feb. 28
to March 8, internationally educated
engineers look with renewed optimism
at finding relevant employment.
National Engineering Month is an
annual celebration of the engineering
profession’s contributions to technological innovation, economic competitiveness, and public health and safety.
Events and workshops are held in each
Canadian province to showcase the profession and to encourage young people
to consider engineering careers.
But if National Engineering Month
is especially geared to students and
young people, immigrant advocacy
associations hope the event will shed
some light on opportunities for internationally educated engineering
professionals to find related work in
Canada.
It’s undeniable that Canada’s en-
gineering community is taking on an
international flavour. A recent Engineering and Labour Market Study
undertaken by the Engineers Canada
group found that internationally educated engineers now account for 20 per
cent of all employment in “engineering occupations.” This corresponds
in some way to the experience of
Canada’s largest engineering regulator, Professional Engineers Ontario
(PEO), which now licenses as many
foreign-born engineers as Ontario
university graduates.
Still, there are integration problems
to overcome.
According to a survey by the Council for Access to the Profession of Engineering (CAPE), nearly 75 per cent
of new Canadians with engineering
backgrounds fail to find engineeringrelated work after one year in Canada.
Although the figure drops to less than
50 per cent after four or more years
in Canada, the survey illustrates the
problems associated with foreign credential recognition for engineers.
“Actually we don’t see licensing
as an obstacle to finding a job,” says
CAPE president Saeed Ziaee. “But we
encourage internationally educated
engineers to register with the provincial engineering regulator as soon as
they can.”
Ziaee, a product development manager with a Toronto-based engineering
firm, says the one-year Canadian experience requirement for immigrants
applying for a Canadian engineering
licence presents a bigger dilemma.
Chantal Guay, CEO of Engineers
Canada, says foreign credential recognition is a top priority in its discussions with federal immigration
officials. In addition to providing licensing and registration information
to would-be immigrants in a more
timely fashion, she adds that immigration officials should allow provincial
engineering regulators a greater role
in assessing the credentials of immigrant engineers.
“Our long-term goal is that the government will resume the old practice
of directing immigrants toward the
appropriate professional regulatory
body,” Guay says.
Federal immigration officials,
meanwhile, have responded to labour
shortage concerns with recent initiatives designed to speed up the immigration process for certain classes
of professional, including some types
of engineers. Under Citizenship and
Immigration Canada’s national occupational classification categories, immigrants with experience as mining,
geological and petroleum engineers
are now fast-tracked when processing
overall immigration applications.
The engineering labour market study
cited found that labour markets in western Canada, particularly Alberta, are in
greater need of engineering talent than
markets in Ontario and central Canada.
The study also found that employment
prospects for engineers in the computer,
petroleum and aerospace sectors should
be more favourable than for traditional
sectors such as chemical, civil and
mechanical engineering. Demand for
engineers is expected to remain strong
in western Canada until about 2010,
whereas the situation in central Canada
will be characterized by a case of too
many engineers.
Although the increasing demand for
specific types of engineering experience isn’t likely to result in changes in
the licensing and registration criteria,
it has encouraged engineering regulators to develop mentoring, networking
and related activities to help internationally educated engineers become
licensed and find employment.
See our March 2009 edition of
Canadian Immigrant for more on
becoming an engineer in Canada.
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February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
30 Careers
It’s in your hands
| Skills for Success |
In this new column, HR expert provides tips for
succeeding in the Canadian labour market
S
killed immigrants come to Canada
with hopes of happiness and prosperity. Their goals are mostly focused on
becoming successful and providing support to their relatives back home. And, in
order to do this, these newcomers strive
for an effective professional career or a
path in entrepreneurship
But even if you hold a professional degree or business experience, you will be
confronted with a stark reality when you
hear the statement: “You don’t have any
Canadian experience!” The next steps you
make will determine whether you will be
launching a successful career in Canada,
or not.
I can vividly remember my first office
position 20-plus years ago, when my future
supervisor said, “You have no experience,
but I am going to take a chance on you.” I
went on to become the assistant manager
to my supervisor, who was the manager,
until I left for a new opportunity that led
me down a path to a successful career in
human resources for a financial institution.
In today’s world of online job postings
and more than a quarter of a million newcomers to Canada yearly, there is little
need for a company to “take a chance on
anyone” as competition for such business
or office positions is now fiercer. As a
result, you need to do your homework to
successfully acquire and maintain employment in Canada.
Fortunately, there are many avenues of
support available to you to prepare for a
successful job hunt … but are you using
them? New immigrants to Canada have access to information and resources through
government agencies, local cultural communities and non-profit organizations
supporting newcomers. Even private corporations are producing and maintaining
web pages for newcomer support.
Being on the board of directors of an organization that strives to help newcomers
access employment, I can attest that there
is a variety of programs and resources
available, from individualized assistance
with experienced employment consultants
to mentorship programs.
As a mentor to several newcomers
myself, I always stress the importance
of proper career planning and using the
services of groups such as these. Based on
my experience, I also recommend they do
the following upon arrival in Canada:
• take a related course in their professional
field while job hunting
• register for programs for support with writing resumés and self-marketing, etc.
• practise new language skills continuously
• join a cultural group for networking within
the community
• look at potential temporary positions, including internship programs
• research companies and potential employers on the internet
• acquire a mentor on their own or through
a noted mentoring program
Still, even with the most thorough approach to job hunting, you may still face
obstacles landing your first job. While
having a professional background,
excellent language skills, presentable
image and a great smile are definite
advantages, there is no guarantee that
a position will be forthcoming shortly.
This is the point where some newcomers
start losing patience, and immigrants
take whatever menial jobs are available
to support their families.
Even for those who acquire a position in their profession, there are many
hurdles yet to go. You are now part of a
workforce, competing for limited promotions. Soon you will realize that to succeed further, more skills and effort are
necessary to compete on an even scale
with your Canadian-born colleagues.
Ultimately, as an immigrant in a Canadian working environment, success with
your career is within your own hands.
At this point, newcomers have to concentrate on the following:
• networking, including interculturally
• seeking membership in professional associations
• productive volunteering
• focusing on performance and reputation
at work
• understanding office politics, cultural stereotyping and business communication
• being mentored and mentoring others
• maintaining peer and client relationships
As an immigrant myself, with a diversified cultural background of Asian,
black, Hispanic and Amerindian, I realized with time that working effectively
with my peers, being a team player and
striving for success depends largely on
myself. And while there is no rope from
senior management to pull you up the
corporate ladder, there is support from
colleagues, peers and clients that can
help push you up!
So be proactive and develop the necessary skills for success. I hope my new
column in Canadian Immigrant, “Skills
for Success,” will help you
do just that.
Venezuelan-born Keith Hernandez is a human resources professional
and former director of HR services for CIBC. He is also a board member
of ACCES Employment in Toronto.
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CanadianImmigrant.ca
February 2009
careers 31
B
ridging Program for Internationally
Educated Accounting & Financial
Services Professionals
Fiona Macfarlane is a recent winner of one of TRIEC’s IS Awards. Photo by Keith Beaty / Toronto Star
Immigrant
champions
TRIEC recognizes winners in recruiting, retaining and
promoting skilled immigrants
By Mike Funston
F
iona Macfarlane arrived in Canada
just as countless immigrants before
her did, with only the contents of her
suitcase and no job.
But armed with a prestigious law degree from Cambridge University in England, the South African immigrant was
confident she’d find work in her field.
She applied to several firms and was
stunned when only one even bothered
to respond. That shook her confidence
to the core and gave her serious doubts
about choosing Canada.
Macfarlane persisted with her job
search and, within two months, found
a good position in Calgary with Ernst
and Young. That was in 1987. She rose
through the ranks and eventually became the company’s chief operating officer for its Americas Tax Practice.
But she never forgot her humbling
experience as a newcomer. She became a
staunch promoter of breaking down employment barriers for immigrant talent.
In recognition of her efforts, Macfarlane
was chosen for this year’s CBC Toronto
Business Leadership Award from the
Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), which honours
a CEO, owner or senior manager who
demonstrates leadership, vision and integrity by bringing skilled immigrants
into the workplace.
“For me, the feeling that I’ve made a
difference in someone’s life is the best
reward,” says Macfarlane, who has be-
come a champion of TRIEC’s mentoring
program for immigrant professionals
and served as a mentor for accountants
from India and Nigeria.
“Immigrants are, by nature, risk-takers and prepared for the challenges and
hurdles that await them. They’re willing to step out of their comfort zones.
They have drive.”
TRIEC knows this, which is why it
launched its Immigrant Success (IS)
Awards to recognize employers and
individuals in the Toronto region who
are leaders in recruiting, retaining and
promoting skilled immigrants in the
workplace.
In addition to Macfarlane’s win, Nytric Limited and CH2M HILL Canada
Limited won the RBC Best Immigrant
Employer Award; Jane Lewis, country human resources manager with
Procter & Gamble, won the Canadian
HR Reporter Individual Achievement
Award; and Patricia O’Connor, co-ordinator of field programming with the
Internationally Educated Social Work
Professionals Bridging Program at the
Chang School, Ryerson University, won
the Toronto Star Immigrant Champion
Award.
Readapted with permission from the
Toronto Star.
The International Accounting and Finance Professionals
(IAFP) program at Ryerson University's
G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education is
designed to help you gain recognition for your international
experience, credentials, and competencies.
The IAFP program is unique in Ontario in offering a thorough
entry assessment to help you develop an action plan based
on your certification, employment needs, and career
aspirations.
As a participant in the IAFP program, you will be eligible
for the following:
• Individualized pre-screening, guidance,
and career counselling
• Prior learning and competency evaluation
and documentation
• Workplace communication assessment
and training
• Customized courses in accounting and finance
• Individual and group mentoring
• Expanded networking opportunities
• Career services and work placement opportunities
Some courses and services are available online.
Come to an Orientation Workshop
Saturday, March 28, 2009
RSVP to iafp@ryerson.ca
or call Jennifer Teeluck at 416.979.5000, ext. 2780.
www.ryerson.ca/ce/iafp
The IAFP program is funded by the Government of Ontario
and the Government of Canada.
Read more about the IS Award
winners at canadianimmigrant.ca.
February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
32 Careers
Career Choices
Work in social work
The job
Internationally Trained?
Looking for Canadian
Work Experience?
www.dpcdsb.org/coopcentre
Finding work in Canada
“could
be the hardest job
you will ever have.
”
Let our ten years of experience put your valuable
expertise to work in Canada!
• Small class sizes and friendly environment
• Individual career counselling
• Certificates granted upon completion
• Work placement in your field or occupation
• Specialized language training for success in
your professional field
Why do it alone? Call us today!
SOUTH
B.J. Fleming Catholic Adult
Learning Centre
870 Queen St. West,
Mississauga, ON
(905) 891-3034
NORTH
St. Gabriel Adult
Learning Centre
3750 Brandon Gate Drive,
Mississauga, ON
(905) 362-0701
Program offered by The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board
Adult and Continuing Education Department.
Language training funded by
The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration
Social workers are trained to be
generalists and work wherever
people are in need. Their clients can
be children, adults, families, the
elderly or groups. They help people
by counselling, planning, investigating, advocating, supporting and
mediating. You can find them
working in hospitals, school boards,
courts, long-term care facilities,
doctor’s offices, correctional
institutions, community agencies,
emergency shelters, welfare offices,
college and university counselling
services, and in private practice.
Skills required
Listening and being non-judgmental
are probably the cornerstones of
this field. Social workers need to
demonstrate a respectful attitude
toward others and a high degree of
commitment to social justice, with
training in such areas as mental
illness, crisis management, developmental psychology, counselling and
more. Being an excellent communicator, both verbally and in writing, is
critical and the ability to speak other
languages is also useful.
Education
“Social worker” and “social service
worker” are regulated titles in all
provinces. You can obtain creden-
February 2009
Foreign-trained?
If you were a social worker in your
country of origin, you must become
licensed to practise in Canada
through your provincial regulatory
body. First, you have to get your
credentials assessed through the
Canadian Association of Social
Workers (go to casw-acts.ca for an
assessment form); in B.C., you’ll
have to get your assessment from
the International Credential Evaluation Service (go to bcit.ca/ices). You
will need copies of transcripts,
diplomas, proof of professional
membership and more.
Online resources
Canadian Association of Social
Workers: casw-acts.ca
Canadian Association of Schools of
Social Work: cassw-acess.ca
Ontario College of Social Workers
and Social Service Workers:
ocswssw.org
B.C. College of Social Workers:
bccollegeofsocialworkers.ca
“Career Choices” is prepared by Susan Qadeer, a personal and career counsellor.
She can be reached at susanqadeer@hotmail.com.
Tips from the top
South African immigrant Mike Lipkin, president of Environics/Lipkin
and noted motivational speaker, offered these job-hunting tips to
newcomers at a recent Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) event.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Be mentally and physically ready for the job.
Identify at least 10 people to contact everyday and call them.
Give something back to your community.
Find a partner who can help and support you.
Align with people who can help you.
Love what you do everyday, as though it is your last day, but learn
as though you would live forever.
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CanadianImmigrant.ca
tials for these titles through academic programs in universities (for
social worker) and colleges (for
social service worker) in Canada.
Degrees in this field from other
countries may also be acceptable.
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•
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850 416-736-0080
$
665 416-630-5607
$
645 416-636-2171
730 416-444-6300
$
1300 416-385-0559
$
$
1450 416-385-0559
$
675 416-766-2034
700 416-431-1622
$
$
850 416-282-5607
$
825 416-243-4892
715 416-759-5741
$
825 416-755-9518
$
$
••
•
850 416-291-9221
$
695
650
$
775
$
825
$
$
•
•
PHONE
900 416-489-7368
$
••
••
•
Bathurst/Sheppard
60gloucester@greenwinpm.com
NORTH YORK
$899
•
•
Church/Isabella
666ontario@greenwinpm.com
The perfect blend of quality, convenience and style!
Yours from
Chuch/Alexander
FROM
•
per month
Steeles
Hwy. 400
3
$820
canyon@greenwinpm.com
Hwy. 400
2
••••
•
••••
••••
rental33@greenwinpm.com
2000 Sheppard Ave. W.
• designer nishes
• spacious 1, 2, 3, 4 bdrm apartments
• 3 & 4 bedroom townhouses from
$1269 plus utilities
• with 5 appliances
• oorplans with large private
balconies & patios
• professional on-site management
• hardwood & carpeted oors
• cable & high speed internet ready
• plenty of in-suite storage
• refreshing outdoor pool /
children’s play area
• new laundry facility w/ front load
/ high capacity machines
• steps to TTC
• door toor mail delivery
1
Yonge/Davisville
169stgeorge@greenwinpm.com
• designer nishes
• spacious 1, 2, 3 bdrm apartments
• oorplans w/ large private
balconies
• professional on-site management
• hardwood oors
• cable & high speed internet ready
• plenty of in-suite storage
• modern air conditioned on-site
laundry facilities
• on-site daycare centre
• steps to TTC
BACH JR.1
Davisville Village
416-698-5278
416-691-3514
416-447-9537
416-757-8325
OUTSIDE TORONTO
35front@greenwinpm.com
boldtowers@greenwinpm.com
Rental Hotline: 416-665-7150
Check us out on-line www.ronkay.ca
180grand@greenwinpm.com
* Special incentives available.
•••
••
••
960 905-278-0392
$
640 905-521-0607
$
725 519-623-1214
$
Availability & prices change daily. Please call for details. ** TH = Townhomes
February 2009
Canadian Immigrant
34 The End
| End Note |
Can $50 million solve the foreign credential puzzle?
Lost in the madding crowd
I
must confess to reading the federal budget presented to Parliament on Jan. 27
from a rather narrow perspective — from the point of view of a family that has just
landed in Canada. Surprisingly, there was nothing that specifically tried to address
what must be their obvious angst.
There can be only two reasons: either they do not count among the most vulnerable
Canadians or their circumstances are no different from the thousands of native-born
Canadians who already find themselves jobless or will be rendered unemployed over
the course of the current recession. One can only hope that the spending of $8.3
billion in programs to upgrade skills and provide job training, including $1.5 billion
in new money, and the creation or saving of 190,000 jobs over the next two years,
will help new Canadians as well.
Apartments Near York University
310 and 320 Niska Rd.
(Keele Campus)
Jane & Steeles, North York
Niska Rd.
+
Finch Ave. W.
Keele St.
Jane St.
Steeles Ave. W.
We know that new arrivals face hurdles that are unique and different from the
challenges faced by others in a nose-diving economy. Canadian and international
studies have consistently shown that recent immigrants are among the worst hit
in a difficult economy, and that there is a definite correlation between contracting
economies and high unemployment rates among newcomers. Their credentials
are not considered on par, and the Foreign Credentials Referral (not Recognition) Office hardly begins to level the playing field, even with the $50 million
the budget provides for creating a common, national framework for credential
recognition by September 2009 — a goal agreed to by provincial premiers at the
first ministers’ meeting on Jan. 16.
Thomas Tam, the acting CEO of SUCCESS in Vancouver, is right when he points
out that Budget 2009 fails to “recognize the ability and capacity of new immigrants
to help Canada’s economic recovery.” The budget could have, for instance, marshalled
their ingenuity and entrepreneurship by providing specific incentives for them to
launch business start-ups and thereby generate jobs, besides fending for themselves.
They should also get access to self-employment training that now appears to favour
those who are already on Employment Insurance (EI).
One can argue that there were just too many constituencies for Finance Minister
Jim Flaherty to pacify, and that immigrants just got lost in the clamouring crowd.
Finance department officials have said that their pre-budget consultations this time
were the most comprehensive ever, forcing them to make some tough choices. On
the whole, the budget appears to have struck a good balance between stimulus and
deficits, although nobody can tell for sure if the added spending worth billions will
be enough to kickstart the economy.
All of us feel the pinch in one way or another, even without hearing the sombre
pronouncements from Washington and Ottawa, but it’s going to be doubly difficult
for those who hope to make a fresh beginning in Canada this year. They will need
all the help and advice they can get.
Tam has these words of advice for them: “Do more research and homework before you arrive here. Understand the distinctiveness of the
Canadian economy and be well prepared.” This would be good
advice even in the best of economic times, but in these days of
uncertainty, they are pearls of wisdom.
A Nieman scholar from Harvard University, Indian-born George Abraham
writes from Ottawa. Reach him at immigrant01@rogers.com.
Niagara
A destination of choice
for immigrants.
Visit www.niagaraimmigration.ca to
discover Niagara – all of its cities and
towns, its labour market, its cost of
living and its housing options.
1 Bedroom from $700
2 Bedrooms from $800
3 Bedrooms from $999
Immediate Occupancy
One Year Lease
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1 & 2 Washrooms
Hydro, Water, Heat utilities included
Underground & above ground parking (extra)
Along transit route
2 appliances
Laundry facilities
Newly renovated
Management Company: Emery Investments
Contact Phone #:
416-630-6693 ext 255
or 416-720-9500
Email address:
pmacleod@emeryinvestments.com
Prices subject to change without notice
CanadianImmigrant.ca
February 2009
Niagara invites you to enjoy a superb
quality of life with world-class education, health care, recreation, arts and
culture, natural beauty, wine, fruit and
vegetables, and much more.
Information for you or for your
family and friends www.niagaraimmigration.ca
- everything you need to know about
making Niagara your new home with
a click of a mouse.
CITY OF OTTAWA
4C
34944
RBC
OBC
4C
34900