The Prairie Metropolis Centre which is dedicated to research on immigration, integration and diversity has recently produced a report, The Housing Circumstances of Recently Arrived Refugees: The Winnipeg Experience (in PDF) on a two-year study of recently arrived refugees in the city of Winnipeg and the significant housing challenges they face. They found refugees faced high levels of poverty, affordability and crowding problems, high level of displacement, and unsafe and unhealthy housing.

Battered Women's Support Services (BWSS) Immigrant Women Engagement in the Legal System project has released their first report, Engaging Immigrant Women In The Legal System-Community Engagement Report. The BWSS project is engaged with immigrant women who have experienced violence in their intimate relationships, who may be bisexual or lesbian, who are dealing with the legal system and who may have to self represent in court. The project hopes to review and analyze current legal issues through a women-centered, ethnic/cultural/language lens and to create and develop legal resources from that lens to increase the accessibility of the legal systems they are coming into contact with.

The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned an earlier decision which found the Safe Third Country Agreement violated international and Canadian law. Under the Safe Third Country Agreement persons seeking refugee protection must make a claim in the first country they arrive in, whether it is the United States or Canada. Among other things, the appeal court rejected the earlier conclusion that the US is not a safe country for refugees, in part because the Americans do not respect international conventions against returning claimants to countries where they face torture. Read the original decision, Canada v. Canadian Council for Refugees (2008 FCA 40) and the most recent decision, Canada v. Canada (Council for refugees) (2008 FCA 229). You can also read a press release by the Canadian Council of Refugees, "Rights Groups Express Dismay with Appeal Court Ruling on Safe Third Country."

Amir Kazemian spent almost three years in the sanctuary of a church in East Vancouver after the immigration board rejected his refugee claim. Last weekend a Vancouver police officer arrested Amir inside the church after Amir called the police about another matter. This was only the second time Canadian officials violated church sanctuary. Amir was taken into custody and his lawyer and supporters were afraid he would be deported back to Iran where he risked imprisonment and torture for his religion and previous political activity, but the immigration board released Amir and granted him permanent resident status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Read more in a CBC article, "Iranian refugee joyous after release from Canadian custody, supporters cheer." Read more about the sanctuary movement in Canada.

The Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives writes a response to a mistake which appeared in the Toronto Star. The newspaper wrote that an adult refugee recieved more than twice the amount of monthly assistance than is given to a pentioner. Refugees actually recieve much less money per month than pentioners. Instead of competing for the government funding they need, these two groups should join together to work for social justice.

Child poverty continues to be a problem in Canada. Immigrant families, in particular, are living in poverty, due largely to the failure of the Canadian government to recognize their credentials. Not only immigrants struggle to find jobs, there are also many other Canadians who struggle to find well paying or full time work. Read the CBC article addressing Canadian Child Poverty.

Amnesty International released a report critical of Australia's mandatory detention of immigrants and refugees. The report recommends that Australia urgently make comprehensive amendments to the policy to ensure that no person is detained in violation of their human rights. More information about this policy is available on Amnesty Internation's website in a section entitled "What's Happening to Refuggees?"

Volpe announced new policies for reducing immigrant application times, increasing language exemptions for older immigrants, and increasing the number of visitor visas for relatives. For more details read the Government of Canada's press release.

The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Canada issued a press release of the announcement in February 2005 that most spouses and common-law partners of Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be allowed to remain in Canada while their immigration application is being considered. But some family members are still excluded. The Canadian Council of Refugees' simple two-page document (in PDF) details the problem with the excluded family member rule.

Solidarity Across Borders, a Montreal network of refugee groups, individuals and their allies, is planning a one-week march from Montreal to Ottawa to draw attention to the struggles of refugees and immigrants for life and dignity in Canada and Quebec.

The United Way's publication A Decade of Decline not only analyzes the changes in financial wellbeing of Torontonians through the level of household income, the rate of poverty, the depth of poverty, the income gap between wealthy and less well-off households but also the geographic segregation of poverty in the City. A town hall meeting is set to discuss what measures can be taken to eliminate this racialization of poverty and create an immigrant-friendly social, economic and political environment. Another report; Changes in Poverty Status and Developmental Behaviours: A Comparison of Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Children in Canada - a 2000 report released on the internet this month - documents some of the ramifications of the poverty. A Decade of Decline (in PDF) and Changes in Poverty Status and Developmental Behaviours are available on the Social Development Canada webpage.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on July 9, 2000 in Mavis Baker v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration that administrative decisions made on the basis of prejudice against single mothers, domestic workers, people with psychiatric disabilities, or others stereotyped as being more likely to be dependent on social assistance will be overturned as "unreasonable" by the courts.

The Court found that administrative decision-makers must act in accordance with values articulated in international human rights treaties that Canada has ratified. The Charter Committee on Poverty Issues (one of the intervenors in the case) issued a supportive press release regarding the Baker case, applauding the court's decision.