Immigration
Settlement
Head Tax Redress
Employment Equity and Diversity
Youth
Inclusion
Anti-Racism and Human Rights

Immigration

1. The right to reunite with one’s own relatives and extended family members is an important one for all Canadians. Immigration rules excluding brothers, sisters and adult children are unfair and discriminatory to recent Canadians. Is your Party in favour of increasing the number of sponsored family class immigrants and expanding the family class definition to include other members of the extended family? What is your Party’s alternative to the once-in-a-lifetime family reunification proposal?

2. It is unfair and discriminatory that there are serious backlogs in processing immigration and sponsorship applications in Beijing and Hong Kong locations where Chinese applicants are concentrated, especially in comparison to other locations such as Paris or London. What would you do to reduce the long waiting time for these applicants?

3. Many Canadians feel that the current point system is too stringent and screens out many qualified applicants. Its emphasis on language capability discriminates against immigrants who are not of Francophone or Anglophone background. In addition, last year, Canada's immigration levels dropped, despite the continuing need for workers to build our economy. What is your Party’s plan to reduce barriers to independent immigrants to Canada?

Settlement

4. In recent years, operational and core funding for settlement and integration services have suffered dramatic cutbacks, failing a generation of minority immigrants in their quest for support to a faster integration to the Canadian economy. Once elected, how would you reverse this trend? Will your Party increase the operational and core funding for settlement and integration programs?

5. Will your Party ensure that all who need official language training have access to it, including refugee claimants, naturalized citizens and laid-off workers who cannot access retraining due to language barriers? Will your Party fully fund language training and ensure that it is adjusted for inflation and increased need?

Head Tax Redress

6. Since 1984, CCNC has been seeking redress on behalf of the surviving Head Tax payers and their families who have suffered from decades of discrimination as a result of the Head Tax and Exclusion Act. The Head Tax was first imposed in 1885, at a rate of $50 upon every person of Chinese origin entering the country. No other group was targeted in this way. By 1903 the Head Tax was increased to $500. In 1923, the "Chinese Exclusion Act" was enacted excluding all but a few Chinese immigrants from entering Canada. Families were separated for decades and some were never reunited. Does your Party support individual financial redress for Chinese Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act?

7. What steps will your Party take to respond to the recent UN report that was tabled in Geneva on March 22, 2004, calling on the Government of Canada to enter into consultations with the Chinese Canadian community to provide redress to affected Head Tax payers and their families?

Employment Equity and Diversity

8. What is your Party’s position on employment equity? Does your Party have a specific plan to increase visible minority representation at all levels in the federal public civil service, corporations and contractors?

9. Many immigrants to Canada find that their academic and professional qualifications are not recognized by schools, professional associations and employers in Canada. What concrete measures will your Party propose in order to remove the barriers faced by immigrants and improve access to their professions and trades?

Youth

10. What policies and programs will your Party support and initiate to reduce the level of youth unemployment and child poverty in Canada, especially among racialized communities?

11. What is your Party's plan to put a stop to ever-rising university tuition fees?

Inclusion

12. What steps would your Party take to ensure that all health research, programs and policies funded by the federal government are inclusive of racialized communities and free from gender, race and cultural bias?

13. What will your Party do to increase the number of racialized minority, women, disabled and aboriginal candidates in this and subsequent elections?

Anti-Racism and Human Rights

14. The Chinese Canadian community was specifically targeted during the SARS crisis last year. What steps will your Party take to ensure that any future crises do not become “racialized” in a similar manner?

15. Recent court decisions have legalized same-sex marriage. Does your Party support equal rights to marriage for same-sex couples?

16. What measures will your Party propose to stop the racial profiling of and ensure full protection of human rights to racialized minorities in the name of national security?