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

Immigration

1. Building on the "Family Class" section of the Immigration and Protection Act, NDP MP Libby Davies introduced the "Once in a Lifetime" immigration Bill C-436 in Parliament. With this bill, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident would be able to sponsor a brother or sister of any age, a first cousin, an aunt or uncle, a son or daughter who is over the age of 22 and not a dependent, a niece or nephew of any age. This bill would help Canada meet its targeted immigration goals by creating a new opportunity for families to be reunited in Canada. It is an effective solution that would have enormous benefit for all Canadians.

Jack Layton and Today’s NDP supports the immigration target of 1% of the population. We also believe that family reunification should be a core principle of the immigration programme and will continue to fight for it in Parliament.

2. New Democrats will improve the immigration and refugee system to make it speedier, fairer and more accountable, putting resources and staff in place to end lengthy delays in processing applications from some overseas posts such as Beijing.

3. Today’s NDP will amend current immigration laws, which bar most immigrants that would have been admitted during the Trudeau era. We’ll also eliminate Paul Martin’s head tax on immigrants, effectively regulating and enforcing tighter rules on private immigration consultants and their fees and freeze immigration fees to prevent gouging those who seek to make Canada their home and allowing their fees to be used as credit towards education and skills training in Canada.

Settlement

4. New Democrats will work with provinces and territories to respect foreign qualifications of professionals and to help attract and retain immigrants to maintain labour force and population objectives. We’ll also allow people without status who already call Canada home the opportunity to apply for legal status, in the context of humanitarian and compassionate relaxation of the rules.

5. To improve access to language training for immigrants, New Democrats will allow immigration fees to be used as credit towards education and skills training in Canada. We’ll ensure that immigrants and refugees have the resources available to achieve their language goals.

Head Tax Redress

6. New Democrats, like all Canadians, are proud of the diversity of cultures and traditions that make this country a rich mosaic envied around the world. But we also need to be honest about our history. We believe it is up to government and community leaders to speak out against injustice and fight for all Canadians’ place within the Canadian family. Building a world safe for diversity begins by recognizing and celebrating diversity at home.

7. Federal New Democrats support redress for all historical injustices and we stand beside the Chinese Community in their demands for justice and fair recognition and restitution. Our Immigration Critic, Libby Davies, has a private Members Motion on this subject, which states

M-170 — February 2, 2004 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of this House, the government should negotiate with the individuals affected by the Chinese Head Tax and the Chinese Immigration (Exclusion) Act, as well as with their families and their representatives, a just and honourable resolution which includes the following framework: (a) a parliamentary acknowledgment of the injustice of these measures; (b) an official apology by the government to the individuals and their families for the suffering and hardship caused; (c) individual financial compensation; and (d) a community-driven anti-racism advocacy and educational trust fund for initiatives to ensure that these and other historic injustices are not repeated.

Employment Equity and Diversity

8. Today’s NDP will introduce proactive and effective pay equity laws, including timely, efficient, non-bureaucratic ways to help workers and employers resolve disputes and funding for education, training, information and enforcement. We’ll work towards applying pay equity law to all employers in the federal sector regardless of size and to all employees regardless of employment status (full-time, part-time, temporary, casual, contract).

9. New Democrats will work with provinces and territories to respect foreign qualifications of professionals and to help attract and retain immigrants to maintain labour force and population objectives. We’ll also allow people without status who already call Canada home the opportunity to apply for legal status, in the context of humanitarian and compassionate relaxation of the rules.

Youth

10. Fourteen years ago Parliament unanimously voted for former NDP leader Ed Broadbent’s motion to abolish child poverty by 2000. Today, 1.1 million children, even more than 1989, are living in poverty. Across Canada, families with young children are paying far more for child care than they save in tax reductions, and the absence of affordable, quality child care prevents many women from working or studying. Poverty not only affects children, its impact is being felt by the old, the middle-aged and increasingly Canada’s youth struggling to find work or start a career.

Jack Layton and Canada’s NDP say it’s time to start investing in children and youth, giving all working Canadians the help they need to achieve their goals. We’ll work with provinces and territories to provide stable, long-term federal funds to create an additional 200,000 high quality, publicly funded, affordable child care spaces within four years. We’ll increase the Child Tax Benefit to $4,900 per child and alter the program to permit Canada’s poorest families, who don’t pay tax, to qualify. We’ll allow retraining to occur while on benefits, helping unemployed workers gain the skills to find new work and start careers. We’ll ensure all Canadians who make less than $15,000 a year pay no federal income tax. We’ll build affordable housing and provide rent supplements to low-income Canadians.

11. The NDP will cut tuition fees, just as NDP governments in British Columbia and Manitoba did, with a national plan to reduce fees by 10 per cent and then freeze them by increasing federal funding for post-secondary education and working with the provinces to make sure it happens.

Inclusion

12. New Democrats will, of course, maintain a strict standard ensuring that all health research, programs and policies funded by the federal government are inclusive of all ethnicities and free from gender, race and cultural bias.

13. The NDP has made a concerted effort to attract ethnic minority, women and disabled candidates in this election. 96 or 31.1% of our 308 candidates are women. 158 or 51.3% are affirmative action candidates (individuals who identify as belonging to groups significantly under-represented in the House of Commons and included in the equality rights section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms). We are committed to this kind of inclusion and we will continue to reflect the Canadian population with this kind of diverse line-up of candidates in the future.

Anti-racism and Human Rights

14. New Democrats believe that all levels of government and all political leaders need to stand together and denounce any discrimination or backlash associated with outbreaks like SARS. Our health care system has the capacity to contain an outbreak, but there are other repercussions that need to be considered. Canada needs strong leadership and coordination at all levels of government and a constant supply of solid information so that fear from misinformation doesn’t become the basis for discrimination.

15. New Democrats have supported legalized same-sex marriage longer than any other party in Parliament and we continue to support equal rights to marriage for same-sex couples.

16. New Democrats will introduce legislation to ban racial profiling from federal departments and jurisdictions. We’ll scrap the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act, which has already impeded media freedom in Canada, and replace it with legislation that respects civil liberties, ethnic communities and freedom of the press. We also oppose the introduction of a national identity card, which endangers the privacy rights of every Canadian.