Settlement groups mount campaign to restore funding - thestar.com

33 Ontario organizations delivering language, employment and integration programs to immigrants will lose all of their funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada by April 1. These organizations currently serve over 10,000 new Canadians. A total of $22 million in cuts is being made to settlement programs within Toronto this year.

“The Conservative funding cuts are an attack on the economic and social success of the Toronto area that depends on our ability to integrate new Canadians,” said Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy.

Read the entire article:
Settlement groups mount campaign to restore funding - thestar.com

Sign the online petition

Learning to skate

If you're a new Canadian and you want to understand a little more about your new country, one thing you can learn is to remain upright on two narrow blades of steel while on ice - that is, you can learn to skate.

Toronto has 50(!) outdoor skating rinks that are open from early December until March (weather permitting, of course). The city coordinates instructional and drop-in programs for Learning to Skate, Hockey Skills, Figure Skating, Leisure Skating, Hockey & Shinny (informal hockey games).

Some of Toronto's skating venues are well known - like Nathan Phillips Square. Others, like the brand new Sam Smith Ice Trail are the sort of inspired public works that other cities only wish they had.

Find all the skating resources the City has to offer and the Parks, Forestry and Recreation web site.

Baby, it's cold outside - so get out and skate!

A New Year's reso-matum

I don't make a lot of New Year's resolutions. Maybe it's because I know myself well enough to know in general, I'm not going to keep them. Something has been on my mind however, about this blog and the now 5-years that I've been writing it. And that is - something has to change. So my resolution for this year is actually more of an ultimatum to myself...let's call it a "reso-matum":

If our application is not resolved by the end of 2011, I will end this blog. If our application is successful, then I will migrate this blog's subject matter to cover issues associated with living and working in Canada, and the quest for citizenship.

Fair enough? Consider it reso-mated.

One more case of an inconsistent CIC

There are seasons here where I feel like a watchdog; barking for attention to the news that doesn't make the headlines, because it only appears to impact one or two people directly. But my readers know that who I'm watching are those who's policies, decisions and behaviours directly impact you and I - because the ones I watch for a responsible for all aspects of immigration and citizenship in Canada.

So here's another minor situation: A woman in Halifax, in Canada on a visitor's permit, has applied to become a Permanent Resident in order to live in Canada with her husband. Normally, the CIC should simply extend her permit each six months until a decision is made on her application. But the woman has now been told by the CIC that "...she may not have time to file another visitor extension prior to Feb. 1." Meaning she'll have to leave the country. And we know from past stories that once you are outside, but with an application in process, the CIC can be reluctant to let you in, their logic being that if you don't get approved, you'll stay illegally.

Let's hope the CIC does the right thing and extends this woman's visitor's permit. Haven't we all had enough of this Ministry's tactics?

Read the story here from the Truro Daily News in Nova Scotia.

Tales of the new Irish immigrants

In this article from the Irish Times, author Lorraine Mallinder writes, "Canada is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for young Irish people looking for work. How are the people who have already made the journey faring..."

Read the entire article here

Free eBooks on Canada

As I mentioned a few months back, I picked up a Kindle last year. I'm sure many of you readers got one for Christmas too. In case you were interested, The Expatriate Mind is available as a blog delivered automatically to your Kindle (so subscribe today!) - but that's not the point of this post.

I wanted to start the New Year off by making you aware of some cool free Canadian books available at Amazon Popular Classics, Archive.org Openlibrary and Project Gutenberg.

Search out these titles and enjoy reading about Canada!

• The Voyages of Samuel De Champlain (Vols 1-3)
• Canada: The Empire of the North
• Famous Firesides of French Canada
• The Red River Colony
• Pioneers of France in The New World
• The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval
• Anne of Green Gables
• The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion
• Canada Under British Rule

Happy Christmas!

Contrary to the common belief, while Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving a month earlier than their counterparts in the U.S., they actually celebrate Christmas on December 25th like the rest of the world!

So wherever you are this Christmas, may you be blessed with every good gift, and I hope God smiles on you and your families too. If you have a Christmas wish that the New Year bring your personal immigration story to a successful conclusion, then I also wish you that! I know it's really all I have wanted for Christmas for years.

If I don't see you sooner, I'll see you next year!

Happy Christmas to all!

TEM makes the Top 40

Nice mention of our fair blog on Business Degree Online. Apparently, we are one of the "Best Blogs By And For Expatriates". Nice to hear.

40. The Expatriate Mind (Canada)

For the last five years, “The Expatriate Mind” has been one man's love letter to the city and people of Toronto, with dazzling photography and video's documenting the American's insatiable appetite for Canadian living. When he's not gushing about the sights and sounds of Toronto, author J writes about immigration issues for American expats and international relations.

A Christmas story

I have a picture of my love and I. It's from near the start of this decade and we are standing in front of a Christmas tree in the lobby of the Delta Chelsea Hotel. She is tall and beautiful and there is the sweetest smile on her face. It's the smile of possibility and of a bright future.

Fast-forward to the end of 2010 and the beginning of our fourth year of waiting for a decision from CIC on our case. I imagine if we stood in that same lobby today, in front of a similar tree, that smile wouldn't show up in the picture this time. If a smile was there at all it would be one tempered by caution and worn by the emotional erosion of waiting.

For three full years our lives together have been on hold. For three full years we have seen each other when time and jobs and money allows, but its never enough. For three full years I have disappeared from the lives of our friends in Toronto while I wait to go home. Each day that goes by, I diminish. The story doesn't change. The only thing that does change, that increases, is the pressure my love and I feel, and the anxiety that goes along with it.

But each Christmas I still remember our first together. Each Christmas I fall in love with her again. We met at this time of the year and that alone, despite everything else, is reason to celebrate.

The Star - Immigration appeal process urged for rejected visa applicants

Did you know that if a visitor's visa application is refused by CIC, that the applicant has no means of challenging the ruling? Do you really want the government to have such power with absolutely no check or balance on it?

Maybe I'm demonstrating my American bias in that thought - that decisions of bureaucrats should be able to be reviewed - that wrongs should have the opportunity to be righted.

I know there are fundamental differences between the way government is run in Canada and the U.S. In general, I prefer the Canadian system. But I believe in fairness too. It hardly seems fair that what might be an arbitrary decision about someone's ability to visit Canada has no current possibility of being challenged.

Read the Star article here