Immigrant-Rights Activist Uzma Shakir Awarded Atkinson Fellowship

The Atkinson Charitable Foundation is a private Canadian foundation established in 1942, which seeks to promote social and economic justice in the tradition of its founder, former Star Publisher Joseph E. Atkinson, who was an outspoken champion of new Canadians and relentlessly stood up for minority rights in the face of racism, bigotry and discrimination. The Foundation’s Atkinson Economic Justice Fellowships support social change leaders to continue to think and act for a more just future for all Canadians.

Ms. Uzma Shakir is a leading advocate for newcomer communities and an authority on issues such as poverty, access to professions and trades, legal educational services and the erosion of civil liberties. She is winding up a successful tenure as Executive Director of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALC), which has recently secured permanent provincial funding.

She has been awarded Atkinson Economic Justice Fellowships, which will provide up to $100,000 per year for 3 years to support Ms. Shakir's community-based work around immigration, multiculturalism and social inclusion.

"A stronger, more inclusive Canada is a dream that is worth fighting for. But for it to become a reality, today's immigrants and refugees must be among the architects that help shape the Canada of tomorrow. That is why we must find meaningful ways to bridge existing social divides on race, religion, gender and class," said Uzma Shakir, the Atkinson Foundation's newest Economic Justice Fellow.

"Addressing the scope of social and economic exclusion experienced by new immigrants requires fresh approaches, innovative thinking and determined leadership. Leadership by people like Uzma Shakir. This highly respected community advocate will strive to engage all Canadians in how we can shape a better future for everyone in our communities." said Peter A. Armstrong, President of the Board of Trustees of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation.

Previous winners of this Award include progressive economist Armine Yalnizyan, former premier Roy Romanow and housing activist Cathy Crowe.

Canadian banks focusing on initiatives for newcomers

Nowadays, Canada's leading banks are implementing initiatives to attract a diverse client- and employee-base in order to be successful in tomorrow’s economy, where as projected that by 2030, immigration will be the only source of population growth in Canada.

Most banks are adding to their language capabilities, offering several languages at automated banking machines, and staffing banks with multi-lingual tellers. Many have also been changing their loan approval standards for newcomers, given that they do not have credit history in Canada.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) for example, considers factors such as a person's employment plans in Canada and their amount of investable assets.

HSBC Bank Canada has been setting up accounts and credit facilities for customers before they land in Canada. "As long as they have the appropriate paperwork and immigrant status, then we can open the account and they can just show up at the branch and finalize everything," explains Tracy Redies, executive vice-president of personal banking services at HSBC Bank.

The Royal Bank of Canada's director of cultural markets stated that reaching out to the immigrant market is one of the bank's key priorities. It has already begun advertising its Canadian services in China, aimed at people who may be considering emigration. Most banks are boosting their advertising budgets to tailor their advertising messages to newcomers.

Canadian banks are also creating positions to focus on newcomers such as the Vice-President of Multicultural Banking at the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Managing Director of Specialty Markets at the Bank of Montreal.

Canada announced reduction in GST and other tax reliefs for individuals and businesses

The government of Canada has announed a broad-based tax relief for every Canadian individual and business as proposed in the Economic Statement of 2007. Due to this, taxes will fall by some CDN$190 billion over this and the next five fiscal years to their lowest level since the early 1960s.

As proposed, a reduction of an additional percentage point will reduce GST to 5 per cent, which was initially reduced from 7 to 6 per cent in Budget 2006. This reduction will be effective from January 1, 2008. The reduction of 2 percentage point in GST will amount to approximately CDN$12 billion total savings for consumers next year. The GST credit will be maintained at its current level, translating into more than CDN$1.1 billion in benefits annually for low- and modest-income Canadians.

Among other measures, the Government is proposing additional tax relief for individuals and families by (a) increasing the basic personal amount to $9,600 retroactive to January 1, 2007, with a further increase to $10,100 on January 1, 2009; (b) reducing the lowest personal income tax rate to 15 per cent from 15.5 per cent, retroactive to January 1, 2007; (c) introducing a new Working Income Tax Benefit; (d) eliminating income tax on elementary and secondary school scholarships; (e) enhancing the children's fitness tax credit; and (f) expanding the scope of the public transit tax credit.

To help Canadian businesses, government proposes to (a) reduce the general corporate income tax rate to 15 per cent by 2012, starting with a 1 percentage point reduction in the rate in 2008 beyond the already legislated reductions; (b) reduce the small business income tax rate to 11 per cent in 2008, one year earlier than scheduled; (c) increase the lifetime capital gains exemption for small business owners, farmers and fishers to $750,000; (d) increase the deductible percentage of meal expenses for long-haul truck drivers; (e) extend the mineral exploration tax credit; and (f) ease tax remittance and filing requirements for small business.

Due to this decline in business taxation will not only strengthen the economy but also encourage job creation. It is also expected that by 2012, Canada’s corporate income tax rate will be the lowest among the major industrialized economies.

The legislation also proposes to eliminate withholding tax on arm's length outbound interest payments to residents of all countries effective January 1, 2008. Based on the proposal in Budget 2007 and building on the Protocol to the Canada-U.S. Tax Treaty signed September 21, 2007, this major step forward in Canada's international tax policy will increase access to foreign capital markets and reduce costs for Canadians and Canadian businesses that borrow from foreign lenders.

Canada introduces legislation to tackle identity theft

Today, government of Canada has introduced legislation to help combat identity theft, generally referred to as identity fraud, which has been identified as a fast-growing problem throughout North America. This legislation will make it an offence to obtain, possess or traffic in other people's identity information if it is to be used to commit a crime.

This crime was previously covered by current offences in the Criminal Code, such as personation and forgery, which generally didn’t capture the preparatory steps of collecting, possessing and trafficking in identity information.

The proposed legislation would create three new offences directly targeting aspects of the identity theft problem, all subject to five-year maximum sentences: (a) obtaining or possessing identity information with intent to use it to commit certain crimes; (b) trafficking in identity information with knowledge of or recklessness as to its intended use in the commission of certain crime; and (c) unlawfully possessing and trafficking in government-issued identity documents.

Additional Criminal Code amendments would create new offences of fraudulently redirecting or causing redirection of a person's mail, possessing a counterfeit Canada Post mail key and possessing instruments for copying credit card information, in addition to the existing offence of possessing instruments for forging credit cards.

Moreover, a new power would also be added permitting the court to order, as part of a sentence, that an offender be required to pay restitution to a victim of identity theft or identity fraud where the victim has incurred expenses related to rehabilitating their identity, such as the cost of replacement cards and documents and costs in relation to correcting their credit history.

This legislative proposal is one in a new series of tackling community crime bills the Government of Canada will be introducing in this new session of Parliament. This series is in addition to the comprehensive Tackling Violent Crime Act that aims to better protect youth from sexual predators, protect society from dangerous offenders, get serious with drug impaired drivers and toughen sentencing and bail for those who commit serious gun crimes.

An online version of the legislation will be available at http://www.parl.gc.ca/.

Manitoba plans to regulate foreign worker recruitment

Manitoba's provincial government announced plans to regulate agencies that recruit temporary workers from other countries, through the introduction of provincial license and making necessary for such agencies to be members in good standing of either a law society in Canada or the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC, www.csic-scci.ca).

These plans, if approved, will amend the Provincial Employment Services Act, which governs the activities of employment service agencies and hadn't been amended since 1987. The goals of the revised legislation would include: (a) ensuring young people, especially young women and girls, are adequately protected from potential exploitation; and (b) protecting temporary foreign workers who are vulnerable to exploitation by requiring all third-party recruiters to be licensed by the province and be members in good standing of a law society in Canada or the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants.

This legislation, which would be the first of its kind in Canada, will also look to help employers get access to "legitimate and reliable" recruitment choices.

Almost 4,500 temporary foreign workers were employed in Manitoba in January this year, up from about 1,500 in 1997.

"We will continue to work with our federal (government) partners to better understand the arrival, location and numbers of temporary workers as well as identify, license and regulate agencies involved in the recruitment," Labor Minister Nancy Allan said in a release.

The Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants applauds the Minister for her vision and leadership to better regulate immigration recruiters and modeling agencies.