With a large number of Indians having to face long waiting times for Canada visas, the latest issue highlights the unwelcoming realities of the land of the maple leaf.
As per a report by The Conversation, the processing times for international student permits have more than doubled since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of the standard 60 days, students from some regions are experiencing delays of more than 200 days.
Citing a report by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, the publication said that more than half a million people were turned down for study permits in Canada between 2016 and 2020.
Many of these individuals were qualified and accepted into leading programmes and often sponsored under Candian research grants and scholarships, the report noted.
However, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has continued to delay the visa process. “These delays are occurring even for people already living and studying in Canada, who are simply applying for standard, allowable and encouraged postgraduate work,” as per The Conversation.
The members of the University Advisory Council of the Canadian Association for Global Health, representing 25 member universities across Canada also claimed that there were ingrained inequities and discrimination which were affecting scholars around the world.
As per the members, students from low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are experiencing exceptionally long delays.
Whereas, individuals from high-income countries like US and Australia have not faced such delays. For graduate students and fellows already studying in Canada, the delays are creating fear and anxiety.
The delay from the IRCC’s side has threatened income and access to basic benefits like health and child care because, without a valid visa or study permit, universities cannot process their scholarship or employment payments.
Uluru—a monumental, cathedral-like rock that stands alone in the western deserts of Central Australia—may seem an unlikely place from which to reflect on the scourge of violence against Black Americans that stains the U.S. body-politic today.
But understanding the consequences of one event that happened far away in 1934 is a powerful reminder that the struggle to make Black lives matter and counter white supremacist violence transcends national boundaries.
In June 1931, Constable Bill McKinnon arrived in Alice Springs to take up his appointment as a police officer in central Australia. He was barely thirty—lean, brash, and tough—a no-nonsense raconteur with a sharp tongue and unyielding determination.
In 1934, after chasing down six Aboriginal men for the killing of an Aboriginal man that had taken place under tribal law, he cornered one man in a cave and shot and killed him at Uluru, a place that has long been sacred for the Anangu, its traditional owners, and is now spiritually significant for the entire nation.
In 1935, an Australian government Board of Inquiry, which exhumed the man’s body and eventually took his remains back to Adelaide, found that the killing was “ethically unwarranted” but “legally justified.”
Remarkably, McKinnon claimed that he had fired his pistol into the cave in “self-defense.” Now, almost 100 years later—after the discovery of new evidence that proves he lied to the Inquiry—the murder of one defenseless Aboriginal man in the heart of Australia highlights the entrenched inequalities in societies rooted in violence and oppression.
There’s a reason that so many Aboriginal people identified with George Floyd. Australia’s First Nations people—twelve times more likely to be incarcerated than white Australians—continue to see themselves as victims of state-sanctioned violence, often involving police.
Today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 3.2 percent of Australia’s total population, yet they account for almost 30 percent of the country’s prison population.
Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan was targeted by bigots almost as soon as he arrived in Australia.
As he was starting his new life here with his family in the 1980s, Mr Tan’s wife was told to “go home” while she was out for a meal with their kids.
Mr Tan was refused a train ticket by a conductor.
“That was the two weeks I was first in Australia as a student, where the conductor… refused to sell to me until I said the word ‘please’,” he told the ABC in an interview to mark the launch of a new national anti-racism campaign today.
The Malaysian-born lawyer ran into similar attitudes when he moved into the public sector, first as the Victorian Multicultural Commissioner then national Race Discrimination Commissioner. Chin Tan
“Even when I got into government… you have these situations where officers within government would adopt different attitudes, would say things like, ‘I don’t know what you do in the Chinese community, but this is what we do in government,'” he said.
“A person of a different background might feel a sense that they can’t get ahead,” he said.
“Many non-European Australians have come forward and told us stories and said, ‘We can’t get ahead, the system is stacked against me, I just don’t know what to do, it’s like we can’t find a place’.
“What we are and who we are is not appreciated.”
The latest census data showed more than half of Australia’s residents (51.5 per cent) reported being either born overseas or having an overseas-born parent.
Nearly 28 per cent of the Australian population speak a language other than English at home.
Serious violations of indigenous peoples rights by the United States, Canada and Australia are not just something of the past, but a matter of chronic and systemic racism that continues to this day, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Friday.
Speaking at a video side-event co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of Venezuela and the Permanent Mission of China in Geneva during the 49th Session of the Human Rights Council, minister Jiang Duan of the Chinese Mission called on the countries to uproot the pernicious legacies of colonialism, eradicate systemic racism and discrimination to ensure the equality and rights of the indigenous peoples.
As is well known, Jiang said, by means of killings, displacements, and forced assimilation, the United States has systematically deprived American Indians of their basic rights, including the right to life, political, economic and cultural rights, in an attempt to physically and culturally eradicate the entire community.
“The Indian population plummeted from 5 million at the end of the 15th century to 237,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, when many tribes were completely extinct,” he noted.
He continued that since the beginning of last year, there has been shocking and distressing discovery of a large number of unnamed graves and remains of indigenous children in Canada, and the truth remains untold to this day.
Australia, he said, has in history pursued the notorious “White Australia Policy”, under which 100,000 aboriginal children were forcibly taken away from their families, causing lifetime harm and trauma to the “stolen generation.”
“Today, indigenous peoples are still subject to widespread and systemic discrimination and inequality in these countries, and are marginalized and left at the bottom of society politically, economically and culturally. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated their disadvantaged situation,” he stressed.He urged the United States, Canada and Australia to reflect seriously on their wrongdoings, immediately amend laws and change policies that violate indigenous peoples’ rights, investigate the crimes and hold perpetrators accountable.
A Jewish group in Queensland, Australia, is advocating for outlawing displays of Nazi flags and for old laws to be updated following an uptick in antisemitism among the local Jewish community, reported the Brisbane Times.
Six in 10 members of the Queensland Jewish community said in a recent survey conducted by the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies that they have experienced antisemitism.
“Of those Jews in Queensland who experienced antisemitism, half were either abused, harassed, intimidated or bullied simply because they are Jewish and, distressingly, many of these incidents occur in the workplace,” said Jason Steinberg, vice president of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies.
“Fifteen percent of Queensland Jews also reported hate-fueled incidents that related to Israel and/or Zionism. We have also seen an increase in activity by white-supremacist, neo-Nazi and other far-right extremist groups whose members seem to act with impunity, as well as anti-Israel activists targeting local Jews.”
He called on Queensland to make it a criminal offense if someone’s behavior or published material was likely to intimidate others or incite harassment based on race, religion, sexuality or gender. He proposed penalties of up to 14 years in jail.
“The current law is 30 years old and is outdated,” he said. “We are also calling on the state government to ban the public display and sale of items that include Nazi symbols, such as the swastika, which are used by racists with impunity. This will empower the police to remove and confiscate these items and be a useful tool in countering the proliferation of extremist ideologies.”
Data gathered by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry showed that the number of anti-Semitic abuses reported in Queensland this year has already matched the total number of incidents from 2020, according to the Brisbane Times.
Source: Israel Hayom
Also Read: Researchers Unlock Links Between Racism and Negative Health Outcomes
Pregnant Muslim woman bashed inside a café during a ‘random racist attack’ says she fears for her children’s future growing up in Australia
A pregnant Muslim woman who was randomly targeted and stomped on while sitting in a cafe fears for the world her children will grow up in if racism is not addressed.
The 31-year-old woman, who is 38 weeks pregnant, was with friends at Bay Vista cafe on Church Street, Parramatta, at 10.30pm on Wednesday when she was set upon by a man who she did not know.
Police have arrested 43-year-old Stipe Lozina and charged him with affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm since the attack.
While the woman has chosen to remain anonymous, she released a statement through a friend thanking Australia for rallying behind her.
A pregnant Muslim woman who was randomly targeted and stomped on while sitting in a cafe fears for the world her children will grow up in if racism is not addressed. The 31-year-old woman, who is 38 weeks pregnant, was with friends at Bay Vista cafe on Church Street, Parramatta, at 10.30pm on Wednesday when she was set upon by a man who she did not know. Police have arrested 43-year-old Stipe Lozina and charged him with affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm since the attack. While the woman has chosen to remain anonymous, she released a statement through a friend thanking Australia for rallying behind her.
Artist will.i.am accuses Qantas flight attendant of racism
Musician will.i.am says a Qantas flight attendant was “racist” towards him during a flight from Brisbane to Sydney.
The Black Eyed Peas band’s frontman tweeted that he was singled out when he missed a plane announcement to put his laptop away.
Qantas issued a statement denying the allegation.
“There was a misunderstanding on board, which seems to have been exacerbated by will.i.am wearing noise cancelling headphones and not being able to hear instructions from crew,” a spokesman said.
“We’ll be following up with will.i.am and wish him well for the rest of the tour.”
Sharing his story with his 12.8 million Twitter followers, will.i.am tweeted, “I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced the (sic) worse service due to an overly aggressive flight attendant…”
“I don’t want to believe she [is] racist. But she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour”.
As responsible digital citizens, here’s how we can all reduce racism online
As responsible digital citizens, here’s how we can all reduce racism online
Have you ever considered that what you type into Google, or the ironic memes you laugh at on Facebook, might be building a more dangerous online environment?
Regulation of online spaces is starting to gather momentum, with governments, consumer groups, and even digital companies themselves calling for more control over what is posted and shared online.
Yet we often fail to recognise the role that you, me and all of us as ordinary citizens play in shaping the digital world.
The privilege of being online comes with rights and responsibilities, and we need to actively ask what kind of digital citizenship we want to encourage in Australia and beyond.
Thousands in Melbourne call for halt to Islamophobia, racism
Thousands in Melbourne call for halt to Islamophobia, racism
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Australia’s second-largest city of Melbourne to protest against rising sentiments Islamophobia and racism in the wake of the recent massacre of Muslim people in New Zealand
Protesters gathered at Victoria’s State Library on Saturday to express solidarity with the Muslim community following the Friday terrorist attacks at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch Rall organizer Jasmine Ali told Daily Mail Australia The Islamophobia and racist rhetoric of Australia’s Coalition government has contributed to an atmosphere where vile attacks like the Christchurch shooting become possible Secretary of Islamic Council of Victoria Mohammad Helmy who was among the participants in the rally said the hate rhetoric being shared in the public domain led to the attacks This kind of hate rhetoric it kills In a show of solidarity, a number of landmarks in Melbourne were lit up overnight in the New Zealand flag colors. The rally was one of many protests of its kind held across the globe ahead of next week’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination .New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has condemned the terrorist attack, saying she would change the country’s firearm laws.
Lily Allen dedicates anti-racism song to Liam Neeson
Lily Allen dedicates anti-racism song to Liam Neeson
Lily Allen dedicated a song slamming racists to Liam Neeson at her concert on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old singer was performing in Sydney, Australia, when she told the crowd she would sing “F**k You” for the 66-year-old actor, who has been subjected to a huge backlash after shockingly confessed he sought racially-charged revenge after a friend was raped.
She told the crowd: “Normally, I dedicate this song to Donald Trump, but tonight I’m dedicating it to Liam Neeson.”
The 2009 track was written about the far-right British National Party (BNP) and includes the lyrics: “You’re just some racist who can’t tie my laces. Your point of view is medieval.”