Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the senior staffer was fired just because he was caught.      This was a scheme organized by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism to exploit immigrant communities. The minister has been doing much of this fundraising himself, abusing his power as the minister.      How many organizations hoping [...]

In the weeks since Stephen Harper announced his mean spirited and short-sighted cuts to immigration settlement and adaptation services, I have been leading the fight in Parliament to restore funding to these important agencies. As the New Democrat member of the Citizenship and Immigration Committee, I pushed the committee to study the impact these cuts [...]

The Citizenship and Immigration Committee passed NDP Immigration critic Olivia Chow’s motion urging the government to reverse the $53 million in funding cuts to immigration settlement agencies.

“This is just the first step in reversing that devastating decision,” said Chow. “Now each and every Member of Parliament will have to stand up and show which side they’re on.”

New Democrat Immigration Critic Olivia Chow has submitted a motion to the Citizenship and Immigration Committee urging the Harper Conservatives to reverse the $53 million in funding cuts to immigrant settlement and adaptation services (ISAP), cuts scheduled to take effect at the end of March.

New Democrat MPs are telling Minister Jason Kenney to stop the cuts to settlement agencies.

“We’re talking about the lifeblood of these agencies,” said New Democrat Immigration critic Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina). “The Minister slashed their funding and offered no explanation of any kind.”

Today in the House of Commons, Olivia Chow introduced two pieces of legislation aimed at ending discrimination towards persons with disabilities in Canada’s immigration system

Have questions about how to bring your loved ones here for a visit? Want to find out more about what we can do together in order to make it easier and faster for you to be reunited with family from overseas? Looking for updates about the immigration process following the devastation in Haiti? Join Olivia [...]

November 19, 2009     Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I move that the eighth report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, presented on Wednesday, June 10, be concurred in.     This report on migrant workers and immigration consultants deals with several issues that are interconnected, one of which is immigration consultants, [...]

November 16, 2009 Dear friends and colleagues interested in immigration and refugee issues, The 2009 Citizenship and Immigration annual report was published recently. I am very disturbed by the decline of the target number of families that will be approved next year. With a lower target number, and overseas offices buried in paper, families will [...]

…The New Democratic Party has also called for comprehensive negotiations and payment. Immigration critic Olivia Chow reintroduced a motion shortly before Parliament was dismissed for the summer, calling for the government to compensate the descendants of immigrants forced to pay the tax. “They too are direct victims of the racist head tax policy and the [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 12, 2009 OTTAWA – New Democrat MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) called on the Harper Conservatives to crack down on unscrupulous immigration consultants and corrupt agencies that take advantage of vulnerable people and cheat them out of money and false promises.

REGULATING IMMIGRATION CONSULTANTS Report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration JUNE 2008 39th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION

Community meeting to respond to attack on immigrants and migrants and draft recommendations on the Temporary Foreign Workers Program WHEN: Wednesday February 18  from 2pm to 4pm WHERE: Steelworkers Hall , 25 Cecil St.  (South of College off Spadina)

On May 15, 2008, Olivia made a speech to the House of Commons about the Conservatives using Government dollars to pay for partisan advertisements. On February 10 and 12, 2009 during the following Parliament in Committee Olivia attempted to prevent the misuse of Government paid advertising by reducing the budget for it  to zero. The [...]