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Canada: A nice place to visit but you can't apply to live here

So many loopholes in our immigration system, who are they fooling? Nanny's, Caregivers and those so-called refugee's. Now that parents and grand-parents don't get permanent resident status, less burden on our health care system and social assistances.

Starting today, Ottawa will stop accepting applications for immigration sponsorships of parents and grandparents until 2014 in hopes of reducing a growing backlog.

In launching the first phase of an action plan to expedite family reunification Friday, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the federal government will take in 25,000 parents and grandparents in 2012, 43 per cent above its 2011 level. Meanwhile, fewer refugees, nannies and people applying to stay on humanitarian grounds will be admitted.

By cutting new applications and increasing intake, Kenney said he hopes to reduce the current backlog of 165,000 parents and grandparents by half in two years.

To relieve the pain of immigrants separated from their older relatives, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will start issuing the new Parent and Grandparent Super Visa on Dec. 1, which will allow members of that group to visit their families in Canada on a temporary basis for up to two years.

The visa — which Kenney said will take only eight weeks to process — will allow holders to make multiple entries over a span of 10 years. But there is a catch: Elderly visitors must obtain private Canadian health-care insurance during their stay here. And applicants must still meet the minimum income requirement to apply.

“So many families say to me they don’t necessarily want moms and dads or grandparents to immigrate permanently to Canada,” Kenney told a news conference in Mississauga.

“They just want them to be able to come and stay for an extended period, to help care for their kids when they are young and also be able to go back home, where they are well settled with other families and friends.”

Kenney said he is confident Canadian visa posts have the resources to handle the anticipated influx of applications for the super visas and the enhanced targets for sponsorships.

While the super visas are welcomed, critics say the mandatory medical insurance will create an instant barrier for many families, favouring those who are well-off.

“This requirement will create a two-tier access to our immigration system. We have argued that there’s no research or experimental evidence that parents and grandparents of new Canadians are an undue burden on our social and medical systems,” said Debbie Douglas, of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants.

The government plans to hold consultations next year on how to redesign the parents and grandparents program to avoid future large backlogs when it takes in new applications in 2014.

On Friday, the immigration department also belatedly released the breakdown of the number of immigrants it plans to accept in various immigration streams. In its annual report tabled Tuesday, Ottawa had only said categorically that it would maintain the same immigration level.

In 2012, the government plans to take in 157,000 economic migrants, down 3 per cent from this year, with the quota allotted for live-in caregivers-turned-permanent residents slashed by almost half to 9,000.

Canada will also take in 10 per cent fewer refugees — from 29,000 in 2011 to 26,000 in 2012. Spots assigned to people allowed to stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds will be down by 14 per cent to 7,900.

The only category that will see an increase in 2012 is family reunifications, up from 65,500 to 69,000, though the quota for spouses and children will be reduced from 48,000 to 44,000.

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2013 Ford Fusion and Escape to get major make-over

 Yeeessss, I am happy with what I got (2011 Fusion), but sometimes I tend to want better. Ever since getting a new car I've been car crazy, I now love cars. Who knew? I don't like the grille of the new 2013 Fusion though, I like the current silver one.

When looking for a car last year I had couple of other makes and models in mind. Ford was definitely not on my list. Prior to the shake up at Ford headquarters Ford had a bad rap and Ford was not a brand I thought I could trust. You know, Honda, Toyota etc always got top scores in the reliability, quality, resell etc departments. But I was proven wrong and Ford has come a long way. ( No, I do not work for them, maybe I should, I always wanted to know how they put together cars).

Last year I was about to buy the new Hyundai Sonata, I changed my mind and did further research. I put the car finding on the back burner for a year and this year after much research (Consumer Reports, online forums, J.D Power etc) and hesitation I stepped into a Ford dealership and bought a 2011 Ford Fusion. 

If you're one of those who researches everything like I do and want to make a smart choice in investment I highly suggest renting different cars for a few days to get the gist of it. Test driving a car at the dealerships around the block is simply insufficient if you want to make a good choice. Unless you're the Steve Jobs type who leases a new car every 6 months, than I guess it shouldn't matter.

I've read only positive reviews on the Ford Fusion and after renting it for a bit in the summer and owning it for 3 months, I have no complaints. I actually love how it drives, very agile, inside hardly any road noise, has all the bells and whistles, tech stuff except for the review mirror and for a mid-size sedan you don't need one.

Now here comes the redesigned Fusion next year.

What MAY be the 2013 Ford Fusion.

COLOGNE, GERMANY — The final production details and on-sale dates of all-new versions of two of Canada’s most popular new vehicles, the Ford Escape and Fusion, are still being held under lock and key behind Ford’s doors.

But during this year’s Frankfurt auto show, Canada’s best-selling automaker offered several puzzle pieces as to how its next model-year Escape compact crossover and Fusion mid-size family sedan (due sometime next year) will look, drive, ride and handle.

Despite the Escape being around since 2000, riding on a platform that dates back to the 1990s’ Mazda 626, it remains a solid seller in Canada.

With more than 31,000 sold through the end of August this year, the small SUV is Ford’s second best-selling vehicle, only behind the top-selling F Series trucks.

The Fusion, which debuted in 2005, also qualifies as an oldie but a goodie.

More: Ford’s stunning new concept shows off future style and features

More: Ford falls hard in new Consumer Reports ranking

With more than 14,000 sold so far this year, it’s the best-selling mid-size sedan in Canada.

Ford has already previewed the looks of the 2013 Escape in the shape of the Vertrek concept, first seen at last January’s Detroit show.

The 2013 Fusion and its European Mondeo platform-mate had their design previewed by the Ford Evos concept at the Frankfurt show.

The Ford concept’s gull-wing doors won’t make it to production. But the 2013 Fusion (expected at next January’s Detroit show) should wear a similar rendition of the Evos’s front grille, swept-back side window treatment, and production-ready versions of its head- and tail-lights.

To get a feel for how the next Fusion and Escape may drive, Ford offered me the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a current 2012 Mondeo sedan and the Escape’s European counterpart, the Kuga crossover, near the German city of Cologne, where many of Ford’s European engineering facilities are found.

Like the recently introduced Fiesta and Focus, Ford is minimizing the differences between its vehicles globally.

I was told that, in regards to steering, ride and handling, the current European Mondeo and Kuga give big clues as to what to expect in regards to driving dynamics for our next Fusion and Escape.

In the case of today’s Escape, that can only be a good thing.

Similar to rivals like the Kia Sportage or Volkswagen Tiguan, piloting the Kuga is similar to driving a tall compact hatch.

The model I drove (powered by a diesel engine that will not be initially offered in the next Escape) offered a lot more linearity and feel in its steering than today’s Escape.

In fact, the Kuga had a trio of driver-adjustable steering settings.

The Escape has one: numb.

Of course, much of the Kuga’s driving appeal comes from its compact dimensions, which more than likely are upsized slightly for the North American Escape.

The difference between today’s Fusion and Mondeo sedans is more subtle.

The current Fusion is one of the more fun-to-drive family sedans, but it lacks the driving refinement of its European counterpart. The Mondeo feels more composed, better planted in corners, and with more communicative steering than its North American cousin.

Even at speeds up to 180 km/h on a stretch of unrestricted speed on the autobahn, the Mondeo felt rock-solid.

If Ford can make the next Fusion drive like today’s Mondeo, fans of European sedans on a budget may have to add the Ford to their shopping list.

The other piece of the 2013 Fusion’s puzzle was what was under the Mondeo’s hood.

It’s the same 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder EcoBoost gas engine that’s becoming optional in the Canadian-market 2012 Edge and Explorer.

If you haven’t heard, “EcoBoost” is what Ford calls its new powertrain strategy. It involves using gas engines, but with smaller displacements to reduce fuel consumption (the “Eco” bit), then bolstered with high-tech (turbo charging, direct-injection and twin-independent variable cam technology, etc.) to make up the difference in performance (the “Boost” part).

The 2.0L four is one of four EcoBoost engines, which also includes the 3.5L V6 iteration (now offered in various Ford and Lincoln full-size products, including the F-150 truck), a 1.6L four available in the European Focus, and a new 1.0L three-cylinder (that will become the smallest engine Ford makes) available in European Fiesta and Focus models in 2012.

Ford won’t confirm it, but I expect the 2.0 EcoBoost four will replace the current Fusion’s V6 engines as an upgrade over a naturally aspirated four in the base model.

Compared with the 2012 Fusion’s 2.5L four, the Mondeo’s 2.0 EcoBoost has a lot more horsepower (237 vs. 175), and pound-feet of torque (251 vs. 172). But it sips about the same amount of fuel: around 7.5L 100 km combined city and highway.

Back on the autobahn, the Modeo’s 2.0 EcoBoost is more refined than racy.

As with the Mustang, Ford added a bulkhead-directed “sound symposer” to create the addition of some “naturally aspirated” engine sound at high engine revs and during stomps on the accelerator.

The engine is smooth, but the power won’t startle you. Turbo lag is non-existent. And the Mondeo is heavy for its class, which may have dulled the EcoBoost’s responsiveness as well.

Also know that there’s a large performance gap between the 2.0 and 3.5 EcoBoost engines.

A fifth engine to fill that hole, and possibly power a high-performance Fusion ST, would offer some competition to my current family sedan pick: the Kia Optima SX, with its 274 hp four.

With the looks from the Evos and Vertrek concepts, power from the EcoBoost engine family, plus vehicle dynamics and driving characteristics developed in Europe, Ford has outlined many of the pieces that will make up the 2013 Fusion and Escape models.

How all those pieces come together is another thing. Come this time next year, we should have our answers.

Travel for freelance writer John LeBlanc was provided by the automaker.

another teen commits suicide over bullying

Bullied son of Ottawa city councillor commits suicide

Ottawa city councillor Allan Hubley poses with his son Jamie in this family photo released on Monday Oct. 17, 2011. Hubley says bullying was part of the reason his 15-year-old son took his own life last Friday.

COURTESY HUBLEY FAMILY/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — An Ottawa city councillor says bullying played a part in his son's suicide.

Fifteen-year-old Jamie Hubley took his own life on Friday.

His father, Councillor Allan Hubley, says Jamie was suffering from depression and was receiving care from doctors and counsellors.

Hubley says these professionals, along with family and friends, were trying to help him cope with his depression and his sexuality.

He says his son was a championship figure skater for years and was just beginning to excel as a singer and enjoyed acting.

Hubley, who made the comments in a statement, also says James was bullied.

“In Grade 7 he was treated very cruelly simply because he liked figure skating over hockey,” the councillor said in his written statement.

“Recently, when Jamie tried to start a Rainbow Club at his high school to promote acceptance of others, the posters were torn down and he was called vicious names in the hallways and online. We had meetings with officials at the school and were working with them to bring an end to it but Jamie felt it would never stop.”

Texas conservatives reject Harper's crime plan; 'Been there; done that; didn't work,' say Texas crime-fighters

Of all places!!! In Texas!!! A state that had the highest incarceration rate in the world and the highest execution rate in the USA. Took awhile ot figure it out but at least people in Texas got it right.

Someone send this to Harper, before he locks up all of Canada.

Conservatives in the United States' toughest crime-fighting jurisdiction — Texas — say the Harper government's crime strategy won't work.

"You will spend billions and billions and billions on locking people up," says Judge John Creuzot of the Dallas County Court. "And there will come a point in time where the public says, 'Enough!' And you'll wind up letting them out."

Adds Rep. Jerry Madden, a conservative Republican who heads the Texas House Committee on Corrections, "It's a very expensive thing to build new prisons and, if you build 'em, I guarantee you they will come. They'll be filled, OK? Because people will send them there.

The Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice Central Unit seal is painted on the cell block wall in Sugar Land, Texas. The 102-year-old jail is slated for development as Texas reducing its prison population. Pat Sullivan/Associated Press

"But, if you don't build 'em, they will come up with very creative things to do that keep the community safe and yet still do the incarceration necessary."

These comments are in line with a coalition of experts in Washington, DC, who attacked the Harper government's omnibus crime package, Bill C-10, in a statement Monday.

"Republican governors and state legislators in such states of Texas, South Carolina, and Ohio are repealing mandatory minimum sentences, increasing opportunities for effective community supervision, and funding drug treatment because they know it will improve public safety and reduce taxpayer costs," said Tracy Velázquez, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute.

"If passed, C-10 will take Canadian justice policies 180-degrees in the wrong direction, and Canadian citizens will bear the costs."

A state with a record

On a recent trip to Texas, an array of conservative voices told CBC News that Texas tried what Canada plans to do – and it failed.

As recently as 2004, Texas had the highest incarceration rate in the world, with fully one in 20 of its adult residents behind bars or on parole or probation. The Lone Star state still has the death penalty, with more than 300 prisoners on death row today. But for three decades, as crime rates fell all over the U.S., the rate in Texas fell at only half the national average.

That didn't change the policy — but its cost did.

Faced with a budget crisis in 2005, the Texas statehouse was handed an estimate of $2 billion to build new prisons for a predicted influx of new prisoners.

They told Rep. Madden to find a way out. He and his committee dug into the facts. Did all those new prisoners really need to go to jail? And did all of those already behind bars really need to be there?

'We can't ignore the fact that our "tough on crime" stance that puts a person in prison and assumes that their drug problem will somehow magically disappear while they're incarcerated and they'll never get out again and offend, is ridiculous!'—Dr. Teresa May-Williams, forensic psychologist

Madden's answer was, no. He found that Texas had diverted money from treatment and probation services to building prisons. But sending people to prison was costing 10 times as much as putting them on probation, on parole, or in treatment.

"It was kinda silly, what we were doing," says Madden. Then, he discovered that drug treatment wasn't just cheaper — it cut crime much more effectively than prison.

That was the moment, he says, when he knew: "My colleagues are gonna understand this. The public is gonna understand this…The public will be safer and we will spend less money!"

His colleagues agreed. Texas just said no to the new prisons.

Instead, over the next few years, it spent a fraction of the $2 billion those prisons would have cost — about $300 million — to beef up drug treatment programs, mental health centres, probation services and community supervision for prisoners out on parole.

It worked. Costs fell and crime fell, too. Now, word of the Canadian government's crime plan is filtering down to Texas and it's getting bad reviews.

Marc Levin, a lawyer with an anti-tax group called Right on Crime, argues that building more prisons is a waste of taxpayers' money.

"We've see a double-digit decline in the last few years in Texas, both in our prison incarceration rate and, most importantly in our crime rate," says Levin.

"And the way we've done it is by strengthening some of the alternatives to prison."

The statistics bear him out. According to the Texas Department of Corrections, the rate of incarceration fell 9 per cent between 2005 and 2010. In the same period, according to the FBI, the crime rate in Texas fell by 12.8 per cent.

By contrast, Levin says, the Canadian government has increased the prison budget sharply, even though crime in Canada is down to its lowest level since 1973.

In fact, federal spending on corrections in Canada has gone up from $1.6 billion in 2005-06, when Stephen Harper's Conservatives took power, to $2.98 billion in 2010-1011. That's an increase of 86 per cent. Soon, it will double.

Federal corrections budget: Canada

• 2005–06 $1.6 billion
• 2010–11 $2.98 billion
• 2012–13 $3.13 billion

The Harper government has already increased prison sentences by scrapping the two-for-one credit for time served waiting for trial. Bill C-10 would add new and longer sentences for drug offences, increase mandatory minimums and cut the use of conditional sentences such as house arrest.

In each case, Texas is doing the opposite.

So are several other states — egged on by a group of hardline conservatives who have joined the Right on Crime movement. These include Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the tax-fighter Grover Norquist and the former Attorney General for President Ronald Reagan, Ed Meese.

That's not a list of liberals. Marc Levin says Canada is out of step with the best conservative thinking south of the border.

"We've seen in the United States, states and conservative leaders moving in a much different direction than the Conservative Party is saying in Canada," he says.

"I think the conservative thing to do is to be cost-effective and to hold offenders accountable. And, frankly, for many of them, they go to prison, they don't pay child support, they don't have to work in the private sector, they don't pay restitution — I don't believe that's holding people accountable."

Hugging criminals? In Texas?

What Levin means by accountability is what happens at Judge John Creuzot's drug court in Dallas.

Thieves, drug addicts and drunk drivers must file into Creuzot's courtroom each week as a condition of their sentences. They're on probation with the threat of prison hanging over them. They must prove they are keeping up with their drug treatment.

Judge Creuzot cajoles, threatens and lectures them to stick with the program - but he also rewards them when they succeed. If they graduate from treatment, clean and sober, he holds an awards ceremony in his courtroom. Then, he gives them a big, back-slapping Texas hug.

"Congratulations, bro!" he says as he wraps his arms around a hulking ex-addict. "Proud of ya!" he says as he hugs another and places a medal around her neck.

Hugs? From a judge in the state that gave us chain gangs?

It's not your father's Texas. But Judge Creuzot isn't all hugs. He renders a blunt verdict when he is asked what's wrong with the Harper government's plan to get criminals off Canadian streets.

"Nothing, if you don't mind spending a lot of money locking people up and seeing your crime rate go up! Nothing wrong with it at all!"

Creuzot says prison just doesn't work as well as the less expensive methods he uses — because, one way or another, drugs and alcohol lie at the root of 80 per cent of crimes.

"What we've learned," he says, "is that if you deal with those underlying issues with the proper assessments up front, doing that before you make a sentencing decision … and you fund programs that will deal with that on a long-term basis, that you avoid sending thousands of people to prison."

Prison trustees work to dismantle cubicle walls in a dormitory at the Central Unit prison in Sugar Land, Texas in August, as the facility made famous in Leadbelly's blues classic 'Midnight Special' closed its doors. Pat Sullivan/Associated Press But isn't all the treatment expensive?

"It's less expensive!" Creuzot snaps. "We had a university do a cost-benefit analysis. And every dollar we spend is worth $9 and 34 cents in avoided criminal justice costs."

Other studies in Texas agree that treatment and probation services cost about one tenth of what it costs to build and run prisons. Besides that, offenders emerge much less likely to commit fresh crimes than those with similar records who go to prison.

Getting results

At Phoenix House, a drug treatment centre in Wilmer, just south of Dallas, Dr. Teresa May-Williams is a forensic psychologist, paid to assess the risk of letting offenders out on parole or in treatment. She's found that prison is even riskier.

"We can't ignore the fact that our ‘tough on crime' stance that puts a person in prison and assumes that their drug problem will somehow magically disappear while they're incarcerated and they'll never get out again and offend, is ridiculous!" she says.

Dr. May-Williams says most offenders with drug or alcohol problems quickly resume their criminal lifestyle when they get out of prison.

"The data showed that 60 per cent of those individuals will be out and committing a new crime in, on average, about 11 months."

That's four times the rate of those who go through her six-month program instead.

"A big focus of it is getting their drug problem under control," she says, "and then beginning to work on education, job training, getting them employed, getting them focused on becoming a tax payer rather than a tax user. The recidivism rate for probation, the same kind of offender, is somewhere around 15-16 per cent."

A 'hopeless' case

Equally striking is that even the hardest cases can respond to court-ordered treatment.

Kathryn Griffin, by her own account, was a "hopeless" case.

Loquacious, loud and candid, Griffin had six felonies on her record — for drug possession and prostitution — so she was facing 35 years to life in jail when she came to court in Dallas, yet again.

"I'm a person who had a $30,000 a month cocaine habit for 22 years!" she says. But, "I am totally clean and sober today."

And she's stayed clean for eight years — because, she says, she was a "guinea pig" in what was, back then, a new experiment: drug court.

The judge gave her a choice: get clean in drug treatment or flunk out — and die in prison.

She made it. Now, she has a job counselling street prostitutes, pays taxes and tells anyone who will listen that Texas, too, has changed its ways.

"What I like about this state and our government is they are willing to listen, look, study, learn and see results."

Left, right and middle-of-the-road Texans are recommending that Canada do the same — and the Conservatives most of all.