All posts by Priscilla KiSunHwang

Learning from the Somali refugee resettlement, 25 years later

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By Priscilla Hwang

Almost twenty-five years ago, the first Somali refugees fleeing the Somali civil war began trickling into Canada.

“When the war broke out, people fled in whichever direction they could go,” said Rukia Warsame, a former refugee who fled to Canada at that time.

Today, 25,000 Syrian refugees are expected to come by February 2016. This is a realistic and even a minuscule number, according to Professor Kamal Dib who specializes in the Middle East and Canadian social policy at the University of Ottawa.

“Twenty-five thousand is a drop in the bucket,” said Dib.

Ottawa could welcome as many as 2,000 Syrian refugees by February, said Mayor Jim Watson last month. This may be just the beginning of perhaps a larger resettlement of Syrians in Ottawa in the coming years.

The short-term questions are where to settle them but the larger issue is the resettlement process and integration of the refugees into the society, according to Habiba Ali, a Somali playwright of three plays addressing the plight of the Somali immigrant population.

The largest Somali population lives in Ottawa’s Southeast end, according to analysis of the 2011 national household census data. This area encompasses the Alta Vista ward with areas from Elmvale to Cedarwood and the Gloucester-Southgate ward with areas east of the Rideau River to parts of Heron Gate.

SomaliSpeakersforWordpress
Click to view the interactive map. / Source: 2011 National Household Survey data

Eleven per cent or over a tenth of the population in the Alta Vista ward identified to speak Somali most often at home. Just under a tenth or 8.5 per cent of the population in Gloucester-Southgate identified themselves as Somali speakers at home.

The large availability social housing in this area is a factor for this concentration of Somalis, according to Warsame, a settlement counsellor at the Somali Center for Family Services.

Congregating in an area close to others with the same ethnic background and language is a norm, she said.

Ottawa’s southeast end, however, is known for its criminal activity and run-down neighbourhoods. And one major challenge faced by the Ottawa Somali community is youth criminalization, said Ali who is also a youth social worker.

According to Ottawa Police 2016 draft budget documents released last week, the OPP is designating the largest amount of money to the police centre located in the Heron Gate region in Ottawa’s south end.


The resources for policing operations are doubled for this location compared to rest of Ottawa’s police centres.

There were four incidents of swarming and robbing lone victims in the Cedarwood area between Nov. 27 and 30, according to an Ottawa Police release last week. Hakim Abdu Ker, 19, and a male youth, 15, were charged.

Two men have also been charged for stabbings on Cedarwood drive on Oct. 21. Mohamud Hussein, 25, and Mohamed Ismail, 20, are facing charges.

The Ottawa police did not confirm the ethnicity of the men’s backgrounds.

“Their names are of a Somali descent, but I can’t specify that’s where they’re from” said Constable Chuck Benoit, media relations officer for Ottawa Police. “All incidences are investigated separately unless they’re joined with certain bodies or people, gang related or drug trade.”

But Somali gangs have been an issue in this region for several years.

“A lot of Somali boys are going into gangs,” said Isra Ahmed, a Somali student from Carleton University. “I have friends who have brothers affiliated with gangs. They’ve been in prison. It’s quite sad to see them go through things like that.”

Other challenges for immigrants and refugees include intergenerational gaps, mental health issues, as well as discrimination.

Ali, who has lived in Canada since she was four years old, still receives discrimination here in Ottawa.

“I’m told by ignorant people to go back home,” said Ali. “This is home for me. This is all I know.”

After twenty-five years, the Somali population have integrated into Ottawa’s society.

“Successful integration isn’t really shared as much as unsuccessful integration,” said Ali. This year Canada elected its first Somali MP Ahmed Hussen who was a Somali refugee.

Currently, the Syrian refugees can bypass the challenges of documentation because of the security checks they receive overseas “It was not done before to this speed that it’s being done now. Before it would take years,” said Warsame.

But the greater challenge will be awaiting them in Canada.

“There’s a lack of support,” said Ali. “Coming from a completely supportive environment where there’s lots of neighbours and family members around to an individualistic, isolated place like Canada where everyone is to each their own.”

The largest Arabic speaking population also lives in the southeast end of Ottawa.

ArabicSpeakersforWordpress
Click to view the interactive map. / Source: 2011 National Household Survey data

This may suggest that in the longer term, the Syrian population may find themselves integrating in to these areas of Ottawa where this Arabic speaking population exists.

But according to Ali, the best way to overcome challenges as a newcomer is to reconsider the definition of home.

“The one foot in and one foot out mentality is never good,” said Ali. “The faster they object to realizing that this is home, the more success their integration process will be.”

“Because no matter where you are, you should treat that as home. Even if it is temporary, but you never know – it could be longer.”

 

Ottawa’s love affair with shawarma: Exposed

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A shawarma platter from Shawarma Palace on Rideau Street / Priscilla Hwang
A shawarma platter from Shawarma Palace on Rideau Street / Priscilla Hwang

Ottawa – also known as the shawarma capital of Canada.

For many Canadians, the trips in and out of the capital are defined by their love affair with the succulent platter of freshly carved Middle Eastern meats and roasted potatoes dripping with the oils of garlicky goodness.

Oh Canada.

“There’s a smorgasbord of options,” says Justin Mathews, a recent convert to what he calls the ‘shawarma religion’ of Ottawa. “It’s not often I throw around the word orgasmic, but I’d say this is one of those moments.”

The obsession and hype over this Lebanese-style meat platter brands the food scene here.


https://twitter.com/toluwaaa/status/658109738039709696

But what shawarma lovers don’t know is that in 2014, there was a record high number of food safety violations in Ottawa’s shawarma restaurants in seven years.

According to an analysis of Ottawa Public Health’s restaurant inspections data, there was more than an 80 per cent increase in violations in 2014 than from the previous year.

In fact, there were more health violations in 2014 than in 2012 and 2013 combined.

Donna Casey, spokeswoman for Ottawa Public Health says that it is difficult to determine an increase in violations for any given year. “Inspections of thousands of food premises in Ottawa are a snapshot in time of food safety conditions,” she says. Increases may also be due to an increase in Shawarma locations in the city.

The good news is that the most common violation among the restaurants in 2014 were non-food related. Non-food surfaces like ceilings, walls and equipment were not cleaned and maintained.

However, more critical food-related violations followed closely after.


In eleven cases, sanitization and hygiene products were unused and unavailable while cooking and dishwashing in 2014. This was the third biggest violation.

There were six cases of bad hygiene of the workers handling food and six cases of food being left unprotected from potential contamination and adulteration.

The shawarma joint with the most inspection violations in 2014 was Shawarma’s King on Bank Street with 21 violations, followed by Castle Shawarma on Rideau Street with 19.

At Shawarma’s King, inspectors found two violations where the food was exposed and not protected from contamination, and one violation of not separating raw-foods from ready-to-eat foods in storage and in handling.

It had one of the highest fines for health violations back in 2004, as reported by the Ottawa Citizen.

Evan Thornton, a regular restaurant reviewer on the mobile reviewing app Foursquare, called his experience at Shawarma’s King “gross” back in 2014.

“The bread was really dry and the meat was grisly,” he says. “I couldn’t finish it.”

But the owner of Shawarma’s King Ali Haraidi says that giving customers good service and clean conditions is a priority.

“Inspectors want everything to be perfect,” says Haraidi. “If he gives a notice, we fix it right away within 24 hours.”

Thornton says that it could have been an off-day for the restaurant. But since then, he says he’s only gone to one shawarma restaurant that he trusts – Shawarma Palace.

Mathews agrees. Mathews became a “believer” in September when he moved to Ottawa for a new job.

On his first night here, Mathews was turned off by an unsatisfactory shawarma experience that he calls “awful and upsetting.” The restaurant was on Bank Street. “It nearly set me off shawarma. Thank God I went to the Palace.”

Shawarma Palace on Rideau Street placed sixth on the list with ten violations in 2014. Some inspection violations included using unclean water for mechanical dish washing, and foods not being refrigerated or frozen enough to prevent growth of harmful bacteria.

Mathews’ disappointment was redeemed by the Palace which he calls “the mecca of shawarma.”

But unlike Mathews, not all first timers found redemption in shawarma city.

Molly Wright decided to try shawarma this past spring for the first time. After starving for hours because of work, she decided to try what she calls “a little sketchy restaurant off of Merivale.”

“A few hours later, bussing home, I had to get off the bus and puke my whole stomach out,” says Wright.

Hers was the romance that never was. She never touched a shawarma again.

But as shawarma city’s devout believer Mathews explains, there is a consequence to quantity. “With so many shawarma joints, there are bound to be a few bugs – pun unfortunately intended.”

Theft in Niagara and the curse of Gimpy the unlucky cat

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Photo courtesy of Eva Dudla
Photo courtesy of Eva Dudla

This orange Niagara tabby cat attracts crime.

With his laidback personality and a deformed paw, Gimpy allures not only belly-rubs and strokes from around the neighbourhood, but also some petty theft.

Gimpy cost his owner seven counts of theft, and almost a hundred dollars in stolen property in the past year.

“I feel like it’s Gimpy!” said Eva Dudla, his 18-year-old owner. “He’s just attracting these things. Maybe it’s bad karma.”

Or maybe not. The chance of having something stolen in the Niagara region was more than double than in the metropolitan Toronto in 2014, according to an analysis of Statistics Canada data.

St. Catharines and the Niagara region had the highest rate of theft under $5000 in Ontario in 2014.

According to analysis, the theft rate in the region increased by an average of over 40 per cent since 2010.

“I don’t know why these numbers went up,” said Constable Phillip Gavin, the media relations officer for the Niagara Police.

But Gavin said a possibility of the sudden increase could be related to an increase in crime reporting. “We may have an elevated number than other cities, but it may be the case that we have our public reporting more.”

But some theft seem too trivial to report to the police, said Dudla who’s had several cat-collars and a cat car-magnet stolen this year.

Unreported counts of theft are not represented in StatsCan numbers, like the seven Gimpy-related theft in the past year.

“It’s a cat collar,” said Dudla. “It is of value to me, but I feel like the police will be like ‘yeah, okay…’”

Photo courtesy of Eva Dudla
Gimpy in Dudla’s car. Photo courtesy of Eva Dudla

Dudla and Gimpy’s story began four years ago at a St. Catharines Goodwill where Dudla volunteered. A colleague’s cat had a dozen kittens and offered Dudla one for free.

The day she went to choose from the litter, she noticed one with a deformed paw. The colleague told her to leave the “sick ones” but Dudla insisted.

“She finally just let me,” said Dudla. “So I wasn’t supposed to have him in the first place.”

Dudla named her new friend Gimpy after his handicap.

Last year, Dudla bought a car magnet of a paw to symbolize her love for Gimpy.

“I love my cat so much, he’s my favourite thing ever,” said Dudla. “I wanted a little piece of him to bring around with me.”

After a shopping trip this spring, she noticed the magnet was peeled off her car. “I was like “Oh my goodness! Oh no!” and I was really upset,” she said.

But apparently, “this happens all the time,” according to Dudla.

Last October, Dudla reported her second stolen cat collar on twitter: 

Since then, she’s had four more collars stolen off of Gimpy.

“I’d have one for three or four weeks, and then it disappears,” she said.

Gimpy is trained to use the bathroom outside so he wanders the neigbourhood every day. Dudla suspects that Gimpy’s friendly nature is exploited by the collar-thief.

Gimpy and Dudla. Photo courtesy of Eva Dudla.
Gimpy and Dudla. Photo courtesy of Eva Dudla.

“I call him a very ‘chill cat.’ He doesn’t even meow, really,” she said. “So I was disappointed at why people are like that, you know?” she said.

Gimpy’s bad luck may be a reflection of the increase in theft rates in the region.

But concerning the past year’s unsolved collar conundrum, Dudla is still stumped.

“I don’t know!” she laughed. “That’s why it confuses me so much. And it’s all about Gimpy, too! I feel like he has some connection with theft.”

 

Canada’s “Safe Countries” bill slams doors on North Korean defectors

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Only one North Korean defector was granted asylum in Canada in 2014, a stark difference from the 222 who were granted refugee status in 2012.

Canada’s acceptance rate of North Koreans plummeted to zero per cent from its all-time high of 79 percent in 2012, according to data retrieved through an access to information request to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

This sudden shift can be attributed to Bill C-31, according to Alain Dionne, Ottawa’s regional director for Human Rights for North Korea.

“Basically it’s a policy of self-deportation,” said Dionne.

In 2012, then immigration minister Jason Kenney introduced this bill that included a “safe countries list.”

According to the government, these ‘safe’ countries are “countries that do not normally produce refugees, but do respect human rights and offer state protection”.

This means that the Canadian government categorizes North Korean defectors as South Korean refugee claimants. These defectors almost always come to Canada through South Korea.

Refugee claimants from these safe countries will be given less time to prepare their claims before a hearing and will be subject to much faster removal times once a claim is rejected, according to the government website.

“Too many tax dollars are spent on asylum claimants who are not in need of protection,” it states on the Government of Canada website.

South Korea was put on the safe countries list in 2013.



Since then, North Korean defectors have a more difficult time obtaining refugee status in Canada.

This policy heightens the risk of deportation back to South Korea, which is what many North Koreans fear.

The safe countries policy “was wrong from the first step,” said Michelle Jang, a North Korean defector living in Canada. “Canada lacks in its understanding of defectors and their situations.”

For North Koreans, like Jang, who have been through hiding and persecution in several other countries like China before arriving in Canada, the risk of deportation back to South Korea is a sensitive issue.

Jang was working in South Korea when a fellow employee asked her a question.

“When he found out that I was a North Korean defector, he asked me ‘How do you live? How do you have a house?’” said Jang.

Jang explained to him the process in which North Koreans receive aid from the South Korean government. It was the response of her South Korean colleague that left an imprint on Jang’s memory to this day.

“He said right to my face ‘They [the South Korean government] don’t even take care of their own people, but they’re caring for defectors?’” said Jang. “I was deeply shocked.”

This is when she understood that North Koreans like her were facing similar prejudice on the other side of the Korean border.

“Canada’s fair and generous refugee system offers protection for vulnerable persons who genuinely need it,” said Remi Lariviere, a communications spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

The refugee claimant must not be “a citizen, national or permanent resident of a country, other than the one you left, where you could go and live permanently without fear of persecution,” said Lariviere.

“There’s quite a lot of discrimination,” in South Korea, said Dionne. “They’re not mentally or socially prepared to deal with it. Life in South Korea is rough.”

Thomas Yoo, a Salvation Army pastor in Toronto, was a translator for North Korean refugee claimants between 2005 and 2008.

“They had terrible stories,” said Yoo. “They lived like slaves.”

“They actually have no place. Not North Korea, not South Korea, not China,” said Yoo. “But when they came to Canada, it’s another issue to be accepted because [the Canadian government] says South Koreans are not eligible.”

However, the Canadian government accepted five times more refugees from South Korea last year.

Five South Korean refugees were granted asylum in Canada in 2014, according to another document retrieved through access to information request.

With such prospects, Jang is still waiting for her application status.

“I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

——
Documents used:

1) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689936-north-korea-2006-thru-2014.html#document/p1/a208968
– IRB data on North Koreans claimants status 2006-2014
– from the federal government – Immigration and Refugee Board
– This information gave me the numbers for this story (acceptance/rejection rates from 2012 and 2014 mainly)

2) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689937-south-korea-2006-thru-2014.html#document/p1/a208965
– IRB data on South Koreans claimants status 2006-2014
– from the federal government – Immigration and Refugee Board
– this information gave me the numbers for this story (acceptance rate from 2014 compared to the North Korean acceptance rate for 2014)

3) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689964/image-4.pdf
– IRB data on North Korean claimants status from 1993-2013
– from the federal government – Immigration and Refugee Board
– This gave me insight into when the first North Korean refugees began coming to Canada (1997) and the trends from then onwards. I was also able to see when the first North Korean defector was given asylum in Canada (2000).

Links to informal requests & Correspondence:

1) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689951-gmail-re-ati-request-submission-requete-de.html#document/p1/a208977

2) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689950-gmail-access-to-information-request-confirmation.html#document/p3/a208978

3) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689949-correspondencegmail-access-requests.html#document/p1/a208979

4) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689948-5gmail-access-to-information-request-confirmation.html#document/p1/a208980

5) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689947-4gmail-access-to-information-request-confirmation.html#document/p1/a208981

6) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689946-3gmail-access-to-information-request-confirmation.html#document/p1/a208982

7) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689945-2gmail-access-to-information-request-confirmation.html#document/p1/a208983

8) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689963/image-3.pdf

Links to formal requests:

1) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689961/image-1.pdf

2) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689962/image-2.pdf

3) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689966/image.pdf

China-Canada student ties strong

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A third of all international students studying in Canada in 2013 were from China, according to the most recent data retrieved from the Government of Canada.

Out of the total 300,000 international students in Canada in 2013, almost 96,000 were Chinese.

“The numbers should be even greater,” said Xiaoshu Li, Second Secretary at the education office of the Chinese embassy. The statistics did not include the large number of Chinese students who come for short-term exchanges because “Canada focuses on those who come with study permits,” said Li.

“It’s not surprising,” said Jennifer Humphries, Vice President of Public Policy and Communications at the Canadian Bureau for International Education. “It’s rather natural that China is a major sending country, given the population of China.”

Compared to other countries like the United States, the number of outgoing Chinese students to Canada is not a big figure, said Li.

In 2013, Canada attracted the most students from these top five countries (in order from greatest to least): China, India, South Korea, France and Saudi Arabia.

But life isn’t easy for these students who enter Canada for the first time. “There are certain culture shocks,” said Hal Guo, a University of Ottawa freshman who came to Canada two years ago from China. “Pushing the button and ringing the door – I didn’t know that.”

When he first arrived, Guo was living with a host family that didn’t provide meals. For the first time, he had to do groceries and cook for himself. “The stove in their kitchen was so different, I just couldn’t cook,” he chuckled.

The University of Ottawa’s data on international students enrollment reflect the government data.


Chinese international students are by far the number one to enroll into the university in 2013, according to data from the university’s Institutional Research and Planning.

The university has invested heavily in China to encourage Chinese international students’ mobility to Canada.

“When it comes to attracting students from China to come to Carleton, Queens, University of Manitoba, […] I think the focal point is the way that Canadian institutions have promoted themselves more,” said Humphries. “They have done a good job individually in these countries.”

The total number international students to Canada have been steadily increasing year after year.

However, South Korea is the only country on the top five list to see a significant drop in numbers.

In 2000, South Korea was the top sender of international students to Canada. By 2007, the South Korean international students numbers doubled to 30,000, but dropping South Korea to second place on the list. By 2013, that number dropped down to 19,000.

“That’s really quite interesting,” said Humphries, looking at the decreasing numbers from South Korea. “Canada is not the only country seeing this.

According to Humphries, the United States is also seeing a lower number of South Korean students.

“It’s something that we’re monitoring and keeping an eye on,” said Humphries.

“Tuition in Canadian post-secondary institutions used to be much less than the US,” said Yang Gyun Chung, Senior Researcher at the Korean embassy. “But it’s not the case anymore.”

Another reason may be that big Korean companies like Samsung and LG used to prefer graduates from foreign post-secondary institutes, said Chung. “They don’t recognize their foreign education experiences as highly as before.”

However, the embassy stated that they were still in the speculation stage concerning this decrease.

According to University of Ottawa’s president of the Korean student association, out of the 15 to 20 Korean students joining the club this year, only five are international students.

“It’s a bit difficult for international students who came alone (to Canada) like me,” said Lacey Kim, president of the association. “It’s the fact that they don’t really adjust well in the Canadian community that the outcome is they join the student association.”

South Korea placed third in 2013, after India which saw a whopping 1,500 per cent increase in international students since year 2000.

The Saudi Arabian international students count increased by nearly 4,000 per cent since year 2000. It joined the top five list in 2013.

Loblaw and Shoppers Drug Mart merger – great for customers, not so good for workers

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A Loblaw location in Elmvale, Ottawa.
A Loblaws location in Elmvale, Ottawa (Photo © Priscilla Kisun Hwang)

It’s only the first year after Loblaw Companies Limited and Shoppers Drug Mart’s business marriage.

But for some employees, the honeymoon phase is illusive.

A year after acquiring Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaw is reporting $44 million in savings as a positive effect of the merger.

But, it cost them $46 million to fire employees and cut departments.

Two things typically happen when companies merge– they save more money together and they also cut employees, according to Carleton professor Qui Chen.

That’s exactly what happened after Loblaw Co. bought Shoppers Drug Mart last year, according to the most recent Loblaw financial statement.

Except it cost Loblaw more to fire its employees than the amount it saved from its merge with Shoppers Drug Mart.

Two scenarios can ensue during this honeymoon phase, said Chen.

First, there is an increase in savings if the company can negotiate better deals for purchasing goods.

Savings can also increase because of layoffs and the cutting of overlapping departments. This is manifested in the layoffs of corporate employees in the Tim Hortons and Burger King merger.

Second, there are internal struggles after a merge that decreases the company’s overall efficiency.

“When I say lots of internal battles, it’s because people are not happy,” said Chen.

Unhappy people means less efficient people. Less efficiency means a lavish price-tag for the company.

“You can see a lot of waste because of this internal battle sometimes,” said Chen.

Loblaw’s saving of $44 million is explicable by case number one.

“Big companies have negotiation power,” said Chen. “Big companies get bigger discounts.”

On the other hand, the $46 million cost to fire employees makes scenario two also a possibility.

Prior to the merger, Loblaw reported that it cost $35 million to cut employees in 2013.

This compares to this year’s $46 million in just nine months into their 2014 fiscal year.

This year, the cuts were mainly corporate and store sales employees, as well as executives at certain departments, according to the financial statement. Departments like advertising, marketing and transportation are likely to suffer.

This spike in layoff costs is normal after a merger, said Chen. 

The increased savings are normal too. “Employees are gone, which means cost saved because we don’t need to pay salaries and we don’t need to run all the departments,” she said.

The marriage of two companies doesn’t look so promising for some employees. Though, for customers, this could be good news.

“For the whole company, I would say it’s more efficient,” said Chen. “That’s good for customers because we get a lower cost of everything.”

Loblaw set a $100 million merger savings goal for the 2014 year.

The goal of $100 million is a reasonable one, according to Chen.

At nine months, Loblaw is still less than halfway there. The financial statement, however, reports that they are “on track” to achieve this goal.

“They say ‘on track’, but that does not necessarily mean it’s really on track,” said Chen.

 

In an email correspondence, Loblaw Vice President of Communications Kevin Groh said, “We are pleased with our progress to date and remain entirely confident in our ability to meet our [….] goals.”

These savings goals may be met, but at the expense of Loblaw employees.