TTAWA (AFP) — A Canadian court on Friday ruled that an immigration board had erred in refusing political asylum to a US man who sought to avoid military service in Iraq, and ordered a new hearing.

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board in November 2006 rejected an asylum request by Joshua Adam Key, his wife and their four children, saying that their situation was not severe enough to justify his desertion from the US army.

“The board was of the view that unless the events Mr. Key described were sufficiently egregious as to constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, they could not, for the purpose of obtaining refugee protection, justify his desertion from the United States Army,” it said at the time.

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Ottawa, July 3, 2008 — The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, today released details of consultations on Canada’s immigration priorities, following the passage of changes to Canada’s immigration legislation under Budget Bill C-50.

The new immigration law gives the Minister the authority to issue instructions on which categories of applications are prioritized, returned with a refund or held for future consideration.

The new law is intended to stop the growth of the backlog of applicants so that, ultimately, people who want to come to Canada receive a decision within 6 to 12 months instead of the 6 years it can take now. The new law also more closely aligns Canada’s immigration system with labour shortages so that immigrants who come to Canada will have more opportunities to find employment in their chosen fields.

Read full news release here

For Canadians who like to wear rose-coloured glasses, Globe and Mail Reporter Hugh Winsor’s description of a historic immigration decision made in late October 1990 will be too damning to take. Mr. Winsor was reporting on the decision of Canada’s Immigration Minister, Barbara McDougall, to increase immigration levels to 250,000 in order for her party to get a larger percentage of the immigrant vote. Even Canadians who are more realistic will probably be bothered by the brazen shamelessness of the decision. 

We say these things because most people like to assume that government has the greater good in mind when it makes important decisions. But  when this historic decision was made, the emphasis was on using immigration almost solely to improve the performance of Ms. McDougall’s party at the ballot box.

Read the full story by Dan Murray:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3735