Association of Future Canadians

[eileenf]

Association of Future Canadians

Please join if you have concerns about the record citizenship delays. http://residencequestionnaire.wordpress.com/association-of-future-canadians/

If you have concerns about providing personal information you can contact me via private message and I will give you my personal email, phone number, address if you would like to talk with me to verify my existence and trustworthiness.

If we want to effectively advocate for ourselves and one another, or take legal or political action, we will need to be more than just internet screen names.

I am committed to this cause, but if there are others who would like to line up for any baton passing, that would be helpful. In order to be sustainable, an organization needs to be a collective effort.

So, if you agree with the goals of Fair and Timely Processing, and if you agree with the letters to the editor that I have written, I would encourage you to sign up as a member. If myself or another representative could write newspaper editorials and MP letters as a representative of the Association of Future Canadians, representing 10 or 100 or 500 or 1000 individuals, we will be far more effective advocates than a single person speaking as a lone voice.

 

[walitys]

Fully support, Eileen

 

[eileenf]

Fully support, Eileen

Thanks Walitys. I've had a good number of people sign up and I hope to have lots more!

It's a good way to organize those people who may be interested in future legal action and those who would like to be available to speak to the media about the value of Canadian citizenship as seen by those whose rights are being withheld.

Also we can communicate with MPs & write letters to the editor as a united voice.

 

[walitys]

Good interview, Eileen!
For those who missed it: https://soundcloud.com/montrealgazette/cjad-800s-aaron-rand-1

 

[unitedbritishphilippines]

It is always good to be vocal on issues affecting oneself. But the realities always bites us back. Instead of wasting time on these petitions why dont you go to court for mandamus. If you really understand what your in for go ahead file a mandamus

 

[eileenf]

I wanted to provide some updates here that I added in another forum.

eileen, any progress on the association you had created on your website? Are there enough participants at this point in time?

Ah! Thanks for asking.

I haven't had a lot of time, but so far I've gathered the information, contacted a representative of the CIC employees union (interesting conversation there) and authored a few Letters to the Editor in response to commentary deriding Toronto's consideration of extended municipal voting rights to permanent residents as unnecessary due to the "ease" of getting Canadian citizenship.

Here's a rundown of some basic information about those who have inscribed:
Members: 23
National origins listed: S. Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Iran, Egypt, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, UK, Guinea, Nigeria, S. Africa, Venezuela, USA, Stateless.
Gender: 4 Female, 15 Male (gender and national origin is optional for people to include)
Open to Legal Action: 22
Available for Contact with Media: 10

I encourage everyone who is frustrated at the CIC's mismanagement of the citizenship process to sign up.
http://residencequestionnaire.wordpress.com/association-of-future-canadians/
If any sort of joint legal action will go forward, it's important to have some organization and information beyond screen names. One member is a legal student and is interested in taking the lead in researching legal options.

If anyone is concerned about providing personal information to me, please contact me personally via private message and I will provide all the same personal information to you.

 

[eileenf]

Also from another forum:

Hey Eileen,

So what was the interesting conversation with the union representative?

Do u mind sharing with all of us?

I have been meaning to share this information. Thanks for the suggestion. I summarized the information he shared with me. If people would like to know his name or get in touch with him, please contact me privately. He is open to further contact, especially from journalists or politicians.

1. Obviously CIC workers represented by the CEIU-SEIC are instructed as to how to process applications. Management & politicians design the process. (Our frustration is with the process as designed, not with the workers doing their jobs).
2. Members are not asked for feedback on how to improve processing, but if they were, having the correct number of processing agents would probably be the prime suggestion.
3. Please ask anyone who is concerned about processing times to contact their member of parliament and denounce what is happening. A phone call or a meeting or a letter. MPs, regardless of their political party, are obligated to listen to their constituents.
4. 20,000 public service jobs were eliminated in the 2012 budget. Amongst the CIC, Service Canada/HRSDC, CIC and IRB, there were no executive level positions eliminated. Only the rank and file workers who keep the processes moving day in and day out.
5. In 2010, the CEIU had a membership of 21,000. Now they have 16,000. We don't know specifically how many of those were CIC workers, but it was sizable.
6. The membership of the CEIU are public servants and they would like to be able to do a good job for their clients, unfortunately they are not currently provided with adequate resources. People that sees government employment generally believe in the government, and in trying to do a good job for the public.

So it comes down to the leadership of the CIC instituting time consuming new procedures while making huge cuts to the work force. Delays are inevitable in this scenario.

Citizenship applicants are not very politically engaged. Some suspect complaining about the CIC may further delay or jeopardize their application. While I have confidence that this is not the case, I can understand the worry based on the currently opaque, arbitrary and unaccountable process.

There are few political downsides for the Tories and the CIC leadership to allow a dramatic slowdown of citizenship processing. This is not a priority for them. The slowdown offers little political drawback and ample political benefit as they can tout their "anti-fraud" measures to their political base.

If we want citizenship delays addressed, we need to create a political downside for the slowdown. We do that by a. Writing letters to the editor, b. Contacting our MPs (and not just by tweet!), c. Having our Canadian friends and relatives contact their MPs.

Writing letters and contacting politicians is not a quick fix. Writing one letter will not change the course of political events. It is a step to be taken as part of a larger strategy. Patience is necessary with politics and the CIC alike!

 

[gamasa]

One from the most worst minister of immigration Kenny
One from the most dirt prime minister in Canada Harper
Www.shd.ca

Trudeau 2015

 

[CanuckForEver]

There are few political downsides for the Tories and the CIC leadership to allow a dramatic slowdown of citizenship processing. This is not a priority for them. The slowdown offers little political drawback and ample political benefit as they can tout their "anti-fraud" measures to their political base.

If we want citizenship delays addressed, we need to create a political downside for the slowdown. We do that by a. Writing letters to the editor, b. Contacting our MPs (and not just by tweet!), c. Having our Canadian friends and relatives contact their MPs.

Exactly the fact. The sentiments among general public who are Canadian citizens are not in favor for us. They believe the process is right and many wonder why should citizenship be even handed out so soon. Many people who are close friends of mine either directly or opined that "how much ever the process take it doesn't matter the government has to make sure they let in model citizens in and not people with problematic backgrounds". I wouldn't point blank categorize their opinion as unfair but when put in context it gives a whole different perspective. Immigrants are left alone and the Tory government thinks they're reforming Canada by slowing down the process. It is initiatives like these that will bring the politicians to reality!

• We will have to write a letter to our politicians (MPs and MLAs) saying we're running campaigns and support groups all over their provinces including immigrants, first generation Canadians and newer citizens creating an awareness of how immigrants are getting screwed over this bad management.
• First generation Canadians and newer citizens are able to relate to our problems and when they find what politicians are doing isn't right we influence their vote banks in getting their votes cast to more open people. If we all form a nation wide support group that can canvas all these first generation citizens we will be able to form an advocacy for ourselves!
  
• 
  If the politician is a conservative say them currently the immigration groups are not that appreciative of the kind of damages their party has done and many of the immigrants' grievances will start to influence their votes negatively drastically if they don't stand up for the self-destructive policies of their party
  
• 
  If the politician is not a conservative say them they are not off the hook either, if they want the immigrants' support then they will have to support the right cause of the immigrants too. We need to let them know we as the support group would evaluate their attitude towards CIC's dormancy. Our advocacy group would only support those MPs (and MLAs) that are in favor of bringing fairness to the citizenship process. We need to make them realize inaction itself is not a positive action.
  

 

[eileenf]

They believe the process is right and many wonder why should citizenship be even handed out so soon.

Many people believe this, but their opinion is uninformed. During the city council debate in Toronto about extending municipal voting rights to permanent residents, I was disappointed to see how much ignorance the city councilors displayed regarding the current citizenship process. I was also disappointed to see that none of us that know the process better went to the meeting to give public comment (not sure how that process works here). Many councilors based their "no" votes on the idea that the citizenship process was relatively easy and speedy. They believed that those without citizenship simply hadn't "bothered" to apply, when in fact for many of us, it is Canada that simply hasn't "bothered" to look at our applications for years on end. Some mentioned that their grandparents had gotten citizenship and based their understanding of the citizenship process on how it worked 40-50 years ago.

This is why it's important to write letters to the editor and speak publicly about the difficulties of the process. People don't know. We do. We can advocate for ourselves by informing them.

Many people who are close friends of mine either directly or opined that "how much ever the process take it doesn't matter the government has to make sure they let in model citizens in and not people with problematic backgrounds".

I have heard this as well, but it's a red herring because permanent residents are already here. They were vetted and "let in" years ago. They can stay forever. It's not a question of "letting people in", it's a question of withholding the voting rights of longtime residents and taxpayers.

• We will have to write a letter to our politicians (MPs and MLAs) saying we're running campaigns and support groups all over their provinces including immigrants, first generation Canadians and newer citizens creating an awareness of how immigrants are getting screwed over this bad management.

Please let me know if you would write another form letter for MPs to act as a guide for others. I could put it on my website: http://residencequestionnaire.wordpress.com/

Your other suggestions are good as well and I really encourage you to go forward with any action you can. Let me know if I can be of help.

The only organization which lobbies parliament about the citizenship delay is the Canadian Council for Refugees. http://ccrweb.ca/
I will try to make contact with someone there, but if anyone else would like to contact them as well, please do so.[/list]

 

[walitys]

• The only organization which lobbies parliament about the citizenship delay is the Canadian Council for Refugees. http://ccrweb.ca/
  I will try to make contact with someone there, but if anyone else would like to contact them as well, please do so.

When eileenf becomes a citizen and will run for the Parliament seat, I will vote for her!

 

[Justice4B]

Yeah, Eileen can easily make it to Parliament -- with a breeze!

 

[Justice4B]

What are possibilities of engaging in a enmasse "Writ of Mandamus? Maybe this is something a group of Applicants might be interested it, depending on affordability to hire a lawyer or getting the help of a law student. WOMs have resulted in successful results, including on PR & Citizenship cases. Sometimes, the mere filing of a WOM has resulted on CIC moving the file, even before a hearing date (in Court).

 

[Swede]

What are possibilities of engaging in a enmasse "Writ of Mandamus? Maybe this is something a group of Applicants might be interested it, depending on affordability to hire a lawyer or getting the help of a law student. WOMs have resulted in successful results, including on PR & Citizenship cases. Sometimes, the mere filing of a WOM has resulted on CIC moving the file, even before a hearing date (in Court).

A writ of mandamus is used to force an agency like the CIC take action when it can be proven that they have chosen not to. So, in order to be eligible, your case must have been in process for longer than normal, e.g. if your routine application has taken (significantly) in excess of 25 month.

 

[Justice4B]

I've done quite a bit of research before I posted my comments. I do know what a WOM is about (and the pre-qualifiers). I've studied several court cases, including those that were successful (and unsuccessful).