Let's do something to help end the strike.

[jay_m]

Take time to read this
This strike has last more than a month now and had so many bad impact on us students but also on many other type of visa applicant,
PAFSO and CIC are in a deadlock, None of them want to back down to unlock the situation, on Thursday PAFSO members picketed in front of the CIC Headquarter in ottawa and Tim Edwards, The president of PAFSO said that they are ready to bring this strike until september, if there is no response from the government.
It will really be a catastrophic for student if this strike has to go till September.


The canadian parliament is on holiday until september and they can only have a session to discuss about emergency cases,and unfortunately this isn't and i don't think will be an emergency since it's not a matter of canadian citizen but foreigners.
They are the only people who can act like referees in this situation, since they represent the people and are able to confront the government, that's why PAFSO want to carry the strike till september in case the government wouldn't negotiate, so that the parliament will have to step in and cause the government to settle the problem.

The current government has shown his inflexibility despite all the numbers that have shown how much they will be loosing if this strike goes till the end of summer. but instead of acting rationally, they are acting as true conservatives by being inflexible.

For both parties, PAFSO and CIC(The government) the effect of the strike are just numbers, they don't realise that behind these numbers, there are people, dreams, families, hope that are being hurt.
I believe that they are human and they will react if they see that those numbers are real people that have been hurt by the strike.

there are plenty of ways to reach them, but the most efficient way and more likely to be heard is twitter, since all of them are on twitter, and i've been following the evolution of this strike via twitter using the hashtag #dipstrike.
if you also want to see the evolution of the strike on twitter, these are the important people you should follow:

@ pafsoapase :Tim Edwards, President of PAFSO, he is the voice of the organisation.https://twitter.com/PafsoApase
@ TonyclementCPC:Tony Clement, Member of Parliament, Parry Sound-Muskoka and Canada's President of the Treasury Board. https://twitter.com/TonyclementCPC
@ :Jason Kenney,MP for Calgary SE & Minister of Citizenship, Immigration & Multiculturalism https://twitter.com/kenneyjason
@ :Michelle Zilio,ipolitics.ca reporter covering foreign affairs, citizenship/immigration https://twitter.com/MichelleZilio

The government has taken some disposition to keep the visa processing despite VO being on strike, those include:
Getting people who are not in the immigration section working in in the immigration.
Local staff are helping in visa processing.
But we clearly see that those disposition are not working at all, the people are not experienced and the pace has been seriously reduced and backlogs are accumulating.

My Solution and we can still discuss about it here is to use tweets directed to those persons named above about our situations using the hashtag #dipstrike, so that they can see how the numbers are not only numbers but people, we won't say any bad words, but just let them how we are affected by this.
someone has to step in, and if we don't nobody will do it for us.

What do you guys think?

Here are some useful links to know what exactly is going on:
Why PAFSO is on strike :http://www.pafso.com/news_releases.php?newsID=151
All Tweets about the strike :https://twitter.com/search?q=%23dipstrike&src=typd

 

[Doda]

I'm with you bro. I've be waiting for 12 weeks now for an answer, and nothing is happening. I'll do my best to address them via twitter and show them how much they are hurting us with their stubbornness.

 

[PMM]

Hi

I'm with you bro. I've be waiting for 12 weeks now for an answer, and nothing is happening. I'll do my best to address them via twitter and show them how much they are hurting us with their stubbornness.

You know that the PAFSO members are not employees of CIC? They are employees of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs, so why send emails to Kenney?

 

[jay_m]

Not sending email but tweets, they are short and public.
pafso themselves said to us on his twitter account to contact kenney about the strike.

"Cdn dips regret #dipstrike impacts. But fault lies squarely with Govt's total inflexibility in negot's. Contact @kenneyjason."

 

[Nahush]

Not sending email but tweets, they are short and public.
pafso themselves said to us on his twitter account to contact kenney about the strike.

"Cdn dips regret #dipstrike impacts. But fault lies squarely with Govt's total inflexibility in negot's. Contact @ kenneyjason."

Dude, but we cant say that our visa processing is delayed because of the strike, can we? Since almost all the students are getting thr visas in less then10-12 days. And may be the delay in our visa has nothing to with the strike?

 

[jay_m]

I wrote an email to chc and vfs about the delay,
chc hasn't replied yet, here is what vfs replied:

Dear Applicant,
Thank you for writing to the Canada Service Desk.

We understand that you would like to know about the Canadian visa.

Please be informed, your application is under processing with Canadian High Commission. If you wish to expedite your application processing you can send an email to Canadian High Commission at their email id: - delhi-im-enquiry@international.gc.ca or on their fax number: - 011-41782031.

Further, this is to inform you that the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) union is currently taking strike action. PAFSO union members responsible for processing visa applications have walked out of visa offices in Delhi and Chandigarh.

Some officers remain on the job and continue to process visa applications but at a reduced pace. Priority is given to urgent humanitarian applications.
Anyone applying for a visa should anticipate delays and submit their application as far in advance as possible.
For updated information please visit http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/index.asp .

so ours also is due to the strike.

 

[slipmp]

I have did that!

Look:
twitter.com/slipmp

Lets use the #dipstrike hashtag in a try to do something!

 

[Merg]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if the strike has effected their visa application and caused any delays, etc? I am a journalism student in Canada and I'm doing an assignment on the effect of the strike on International students. Any help would be great! Thanks!