Ottawa Citizen Letter To The Editor Slams Canadian Government Over Tamil Migrant Controversy!!!
Tamil refugee issue wrapped up in Canadian politics
Re: Tories warned months ago of Tamil influx, Sept. 14.
For the Conservatives not to take heed of our diplomats in Sri Lanka warning months ago about a Tamil influx as refugee claimants didn’t surprised me.
If the pathetic press release from Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon’s office after the Tamil Tiger terrorists were militarily defeated on May 18, 2009, without a congratulatory word when most foreign governments congratulated Sri Lanka for eliminating Tamil Tiger terrorism was anything to go by, it showed that the Canadian government had no will to antagonize the Toronto-area Tamils who demonstrated in tens of thousands on the streets of Ottawa and Toronto wanting the Canadian government to save the Tamil Tigers from annihilation. Now Canada is caught in a vice with little wiggle room to get out of this continuing mess. When NDP MP Olivia Chow has difficulty acknowledging the pristine acts respecting human rights in Sri Lanka — when the Sinhalese, of all people, cooked meals to feed the 300,000 Tamils thrice a day, who were rescued from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers and housed in temporary welfare camps — she is in no position to talk of human rights in Sri Lanka.
Party leader Jack Layton disgustingly christened the megalomaniac Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil Tigers, to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela in front of 10,000 Tamils at Queen’s Park during a Ponghu Tamil celebration, almost saying to Tamils in the Greater Toronto Area, to give his party their votes and that he’d speak for them far better than the Liberals and the Conservatives. This is how much the Tamil refugee issue is wrapped up in domestic politics.
Asoka Weerasinghe,
Gloucester
Toronto Sun Article: Is It Racism That Tamil Migrant Children Are Denied Access To Education While In Detention?
Kids in detention denied schooling, Tamils say
By TOM GODFREY, Toronto Sun
Last Updated: September 16, 2010 6:00pm
Children who are among the 492 migrants on the MV Sun Sea have not had access to books or school programs for more than a month that they’ve been at a B.C. detention centre, Toronto Tamils say.
Community members said they’ve obtained dozens of Tamil-speaking teachers from Toronto, B.C. and other provinces to instruct the children but are not being allowed into a Burnaby youth detention centre.
“Its been more than a month and they (kids) are not getting any education whatsoever,” said David Poopalapillai, of the Canadian Tamil Congress.
“They are growing children and need to get some form of education,” he said.
“These are certified teachers who are willing to undergo security checks,” Poopalapillai said. “Things are moving at a snail pace.” Many of the children are suffering from the emotional stress of leaving their loved ones behind in Sri Lanka, he said.
A pregnant woman and her three children were the only migrants released from custody, Poopalapillai said.
Officials with the Canada Border Services Agency said the migrants are being detained to screen out Tamil Tigers who are believed to be hiding among them.
Forty children, of whom 23 are of school age, are in their custody, said Christine Ash, of the B.C. ministry of children and family development.
But others are being detained at other centres, community members said.
The children are receiving some English as a second language classes and a more extensive program is being developed by the Burnaby education board that will take affect soon, Ash said.
Meanwhile, Toronto Police say they’re running out of leads in a probe of a burglary last weekend at the Tamil congress office in Scarborough in which computer files on the Sun Sea migrants were stolen.
Const. Tony Vella said interviews are being conducted but there are no suspects.
CTV News: Tamil Migrant Update British Columbia Court Orders Four Tamil Women Be Released.
Judge rules 4 Tamil women can be released
Migrants look over the side of the MV Sun Sea after it was escorted into CFB Esquimalt in Colwood, B.C., Friday, Aug. 13, 2010. (Jonathan Hayward / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
By: The Canadian Press
Date: Friday Sep. 17, 2010 5:48 PM PT
Four women who sailed to Canada on the MV Sun Sea and spent their first month in the Great White North behind bars will soon be set free.
A Federal Court judge has dismissed Ottawa’s attempt to keep the four Tamil migrants in detention.
The women were ordered released by the Immigration and Refugee Board earlier this week, after the board ruled the federal government wasn’t moving quickly enough to confirm the women’s identities.
The government asked the Federal Court to overturn those decisions but Judge Yves de Montigny ruled Friday the women can’t be kept locked up indefinitely without sufficient evidence.
“Deprivation of liberty ranks no doubt as one of the harshest measures that may be visited upon an individual in a democratic state,” the judge said.
“If stays were to be granted repetitively on the basis of a low threshold for establishing a serious issue, the respondent could be deprived almost indefinitely of the benefit of a release order.”
A lawyer for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration had argued each woman’s identity had not been definitively established, justifying continued detention.
De Montigny said while identity is the lynchpin of Canada’s immigration system, the women can’t be jailed any longer without any proof they’re security or flight risks.
The MV Sun Sea docked in British Columbia Aug. 13 carrying 492 Tamils.
Each of the women travelled with family members who are still being detained and de Montigny repeated the refugee board’s point that it’s in the women’s best interests to comply with Canadian immigration law.
All four have filed refugee claims.
In one of the women’s cases, government lawyer Helen Park had argued the refugee board adjudicator erred because she didn’t contextualize the female migrant’s entire case file.
Park said the adjudicator put too much weight on the fact that the migrant’s birth certificate had been scanned for two weeks, but still not emailed overseas for authentication.
The judge disagreed that an error had been made.
“With regard to the contention that the board member failed to take into account the overall context of the applicant’s file, it is without merit,” he said, adding the adjudicator based her decision on what little information she was provided by government officials.
De Montigny said the arrival of 492 migrants has definitely stretched the resources of the ministry and Canada Border Services Agency, but when the freedom of individuals is at stake, “administrative constraints cannot be a determinative factor.”
A decision on exactly when the women will be released will be made by the Canada Border Services Agency. The agency did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.
Nine MV Sun Sea migrants have been ordered released by the refugee board in all.
In the first case, involving a pregnant woman, Ottawa did not request a stay of the release order. It has gone to the Federal Court for such a stay in the other eight cases.
Federal Court hearings in some of the other cases continued Friday.
Last year, when 76 Tamils arrived aboard the MV Ocean Lady, the federal government launched similar challenges when the refugee board ordered them released.
CBC Message Board Shocking Comments Of Prejudice Against Blind Woman Suing Canadian Government!!!
at 7:14 AM ETWish cbc would just “X” this story..Sorry honey,, it isn’t worth the copy…If you read this, which i am sure you do,,,not hard to realize whatt the general public thinks of your attention getting story..
at 7:10 AM ETRule #1 in Life: Life is not fair.
For 15 years I was unable to tie my shoes, wash my feet, cut my toe nails or pick anything up off the floor due to arthritis. At age 40 I received two new hips, but for those 15 years I had no choice but to ask for help. It made a more humble and empathetic person.
This lady needs to come to terms with the fact that there are times we all need assistance and put her sense of entitlement to rest. There are far bigger problems in the world today then one person having to ask for help.
at 6:42 AM ETIf someone is blind, I don’t think it is out of the question that they may require the assistance of a non blind person from time to time. Suck it up lady, you’re blind, deal with it. Please don’t force the government to spend millions of dollars upgrading web sites. I you would like, I can read anything you need to you……
at 6:18 AM ETOn the one hand I understand what she is saying. She wants to have equal access to things – plain and simple. In essence it doesn’t sound like a big deal. The only problem is that it cannot be accomplished for every single thing. In this case we are dealing with an instrument that is visually oriented. You can’t just flick a switch or make a small modification so that the visually impaired can use it equally well.
Software is already a complex issue. To design something that reads text and identifies objects on a screen, and then verbally relays these to the computer operator is a huge task. It’s impossible for this to work 100%. The proper approach would be to design web pages that are compatible with such software (which assists the visually impaired), but there needs to be standardization. These web pages would be secondary pages that are trimmed down visually, but perhaps work with audio and speech recognition technology.
The bottom line is that you just can’t use what’s designed with a visual orientation in mind and suddenly make it work for blind people. You need to cater directly to their needs, but this takes time and planning. Then you also have the issue of some people being deaf, therefore the audio and speech recognition goes out the window and you need an entirely different approach.
I certainly believe that every effort should be made to accommodate those with disabilities. But, there’s a right way to do things and there are also limitations to what can be accomplished.
at 6:15 AM ETI think there must be some information missing from this story otherwise I am concerned that this is more a nussance complaint than a legitimate one.
I my experience with dealing with a blind former partner I found that all you had to do was contact the government by phone or email and they would provide alternatives such as either filling out the information for you over the phone (by proxy) or providing and alternative method of getting the information to them. I wonder if she had attempted to contact the government first or had contacted a lawyer first. If it was the lawyer, I would say to this person that I pity them for thinking the government was deliberately working against her rather that it just being an oversight on their part.
No company, not even government is perfect and there are always flaws in the system, this is no excuse for taking matters to court without first trying to find an alternative with the other party that does involve spending time with lawyers and forcing the government to waste taxpayer money on fighting a battle they probably didn’t want in the first place.
If this person was truely interested in the welfare of impaired and disabled people and the governement had refused to change their policy, she should have filed a complain with the human rights commision and not sought financial damages against the government. Of course the government is going to fight it, this case if frankly obsurd as we are not americans and should not be acting like them.
CBC News Article: Blind Woman Sues The Canadian Federal Government Because She Is Unable To Apply For Job!!
Blind woman sues feds over online access
‘I had to seek sighted assistance,’ Donna Jodhan says
Last Updated: Saturday, September 18, 2010 | 2:53 PM ET Comments310Recommend114
CBC News
A blind woman is suing the federal government because she is unable to apply online for a government job.
Donna Jodhan of Toronto has certified skills with Microsoft and Novell programs, and holds a master’s degree in international business and finance from McGill University.
“I have a computer that is outfitted with special access technology, with a screen reader. I use my screen reader to surf the internet,” Jodhan said.
But when it came to applying online for a job with the federal government, that technology wasn’t enough. “I found out the forms were not accessible,” she said. “I had to seek sighted assistance to do so.”
After much deliberation, she said, she called lawyer David Baker. Her suit will be heard in Superior Court in Toronto starting Tuesday.
“We hoped the government would respond positively by committing to make their websites accessible, bring them up to standard as is the case in the United States,” she said.
The American White House website is outfitted with transcriptions, audio clips and captions. Jodhan said the Canadian government should do the same with its web pages.
“One of the saddest things is that government has spent a lot of money fighting this case,” she said. “Why are you fighting me on this? Why are you spending taxpayers’ money?”
An email from the Treasury Board said Ottawa has complied with the web accessibility standards in the government’s own Common Look and Feels Standards for the Internet.
But Jodhan said that’s not good enough if she can’t even apply for a job online.
LA Times Article: Will Lindsay Lohan Lose The Female Lead Role In Inferno Due To Failed Drug Test?
Will “Inferno” smolder without Lindsay Lohan?
When a judge ruled earlier this summer that Lindsay Lohan would be forced to spend time jail and rehab, the filmmaker behind her next movie sounded unfazed.
“Not moving on, not re-casting, not under any circumstances,” Matthew Wilder, the director of the Linda Lovelace biopic “Inferno,” said in July.
Last month, Lohan finished up her time early — she spent less than two weeks of her 90-day sentence behind bars and under a month in rehab, where she was initially sent for 90 days. But now word comes that she has failed at least one court-ordered drug test.
And it sounds like Wilder may be starting to change his tune about waiting for Lohan no matter what.
“Let’s see what the judge says,” the director wrote in an e-mail Saturday morning, alluding to an upcoming hearing where it will be decided if Lohan must head back to jail. She has been subject to random drug tests twice weekly since her release from a UCLA rehab facility in August. If she missed a drug test, or a test had a positive result, she could face 30 additional days in jail, according to this L.A. Times report.
“Inferno” had been scheduled to begin shooting in November in Louisiana, and Wilder said he had spent the last week “getting department heads” and “pulling together the other casting.” The producers of “Inferno” weren’t taking news of another possible delay in production altogether well, he said: “People aren’t…like…overly enthused!”
Still, he and the film’s financial backers have yet to give up on the troubled starlet.
“Our financier is actually surprisingly sanguine under the circumstances,” Wilder said.
Early Saturday, Lohan took to her Twitter account to admit she had indeed failed a drug test.
“This was certainly a setback for me but I am taking responsibility for my actions and I’m prepared to face the consequences,” she wrote.
“Substance abuse is a disease,” she said, one which she is taking “positive steps” to “overcome.”
Despite that proclamation, Wilder said Lohan’s focus was still on “Inferno.” Asked if the actress was still committed to the project, he replied: “Why would failing a drug test make her uncommitted?”
— Amy Kaufman
Gayblackcanada 