Good news for spouses and common-law partners
OTTAWA, February 18, 2005 — The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), ended this Valentine’s Day week by announcing today that most spouses and common-law partners of Canadian citizens and permanent residents, regardless of their status, will be allowed to remain in Canada while their immigration application is being considered. The change, which applies to couples who are in a genuine relationship, comes into effect immediately.

“This change addresses real concerns about the hardships that some couples would experience if they had to be separated during the application process,” said Minister Volpe. “Reuniting families is a key objective of Canada’s immigration law. My department has worked very closely with the Canada Border Services Agency, to ensure that unsuccessful applicants will be required to leave Canada so that our generous immigration program is protected from abuse.”

Spouses and common-law partners who apply outside Canada will continue to be processed on a priority basis so that families can be quickly reunited.

“I’m happy to report continued progress in processing times. For example, most of our missions abroad are processing sponsorship applications of spouses and common-law partners within a six-month period,” added Minister Volpe.

For more information on this policy or how Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor their spouses or common-law partners in Canada, please see attached backgrounder and/or visit CIC’s Web site at www.cic.gc.ca.

+Neves Menezes
Goan Voice Canada is greatly saddened to hear of the death of Neves Menezes who passed away while on holiday in Goa, February 17, 2005
See our Obituary Section for details. Neves was the foremost promoter of the Goan Community in Canada. He was the founder member of the Goan Overseas Association, served as president in 1971 & 1977, and for several years as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Association and also of the Goan Charitable Organization. Our condolences to his wife Mabel.
Details of his funeral will be announced in this publication when his remains are returned to Canada.
Click here to check the article published earlier on Neves & Mabel wedding anniversary

Proportion of Canada's foreign-born population highest in 70 years
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/030121/d030121a.htm
The proportion of Canada's population who were born outside the country has reached its highest level in 70 years, according to new data from the 2001 Census.
As of May 15, 2001, 5.4 million people, or 18.4% of the total population, were born outside the country. This was the highest proportion since 1931 when foreign-born people made up 22.2% of the population. In 1996, the proportion was 17.4%.
For the first 60 years of the past century, European nations such as the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as the United States, were the primary sources of immigrants to Canada. Today, immigrants are most likely to be from Asian countries.
About 1.8 million people living in Canada in 2001 were immigrants who arrived during the previous 10 years, between 1991 and May 15, 2001. These individuals accounted for 6.2% of the total population in 2001.
Of those who immigrated in the 1990s, 58% were born in Asia, including the Middle East; 20% in Europe; 11% in the Caribbean, and Central and South America; 8% in Africa; and 3% in the United States.
The People's Republic of China was the leading country of birth among individuals who immigrated to Canada in the 1990s.
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the immigrants who came in the 1990s lived in three census metropolitan areas: Toronto, Vancouver and Montréal. In contrast, just over one-third of Canada's total population lived in these three areas. In 1991, 66% of all immigrants who arrived in the 1980s lived in these three metropolitan areas.
The following information was taken from 2001 census data by Statistics Canada with some information from Citizenship and Immigration
Top 10 source countries for immigrants coming to Canada (1991 to 2001):
China
India
Philippines
Hong Kong
Sri Lanka
Pakistan
Taiwan
United States
Iran
Poland
Top 10 source countries for immigrants coming to Canada (up until 1981):
United Kingdom
Italy
U.S.
Germany
Portugal
Netherlands
India
Poland
China
Countries of the former Yugoslavia

Time To Review Our Multiculturalism Act
By Binoy Thomas
Excerpts from: http://www.weeklyvoice.com/CNews/?CNewsID=527395
Is Canada's multiculturalism policy working to benefit the multicultural communities and not just assuage some guilt feelings that the majority carries from the past? According to a report tabled Feb. 7 on the progress of multiculturalism by Raymond Chan, a full 30% of the visible minorities in Canada are born in Canada. And yet are they accepted as fully Canadian? The jury is still out on that. In the meanwhile, we have been provided a document that talks of sensitivity training, language training, funding to ethnic associations, money often given away to political friends without accountability, and yes not one single question mark on whether or not this official policy needs to be reworked so that new Canadians are not constantly thrown into a cultural ghetto.
Chan's report provides us with a glimpse of what federal departments and agencies are doing to advance the values and principles of multiculturalism

World's hottest markets, India & China, combined in new mutual fund
TORONTO, Feb. 17 /CNW/ - Officials from the G7 nations met recently in London for the "Advancing Enterprise" summit, inviting India for the first time, and China, for the second time, to attend. The summit's agenda focused on the economic growth and investment opportunities in India and China.
"Both India and China are doing exceptionally well", says Bhim Asdhir, President and CEO of Excel Funds Management Inc., which manages its newly launched Excel India China RSP Fund, the only one of its kind in Canada. This is a clone RSP fund invested in Excel India Fund and Excel China Fund. This fund is 100% RRSP eligible, while allowing investors to take advantage of the growth potentials of India and China. In addition, "the clone fund is considered Canadian content and allows investors to invest in India and China without going over their RRSP's 30 per cent foreign content limit", says Asdhir.
India's finance minister, P. Chidambaram, who attended the summit, stated that India's strong democratic tradition offers investors transparency and political stability. "Democracy is a powerful tool for inducing greater transparency and accountability in economic policy," he said.
Mr. Zhou Ziaochuan, China's central bank governor, claimed that China's advantage over India is its developed infrastructure. He added, however, that China can learn from India on making advancements in it's service sector, thereby reducing its dependence on its huge manufacturing base as an economic driver.
"Regardless of their different economic profiles, India and China are by far the fastest growing markets in the world. Both have very large and rapidly expanding middle class populations, and their rising appetites for consumption will continue to drive strong earnings growth, thus fuelling foreign investment for the next several decades," says Asdhir.
Jeff Immelt, chairman of the U.S. manufacturing and services giant Gene dia offer tremendous growth potential for international investors.
"Your bet has to be that China is going to figure out microeconomic practices and India's going to fix its infrastructure, and therefore both of them will be tremendously competitive over time," said Immelt.
"This RRSP season, people should seriously consider investing in India and China," says Asdhir. "It's a no-brainer right now. India and China make up 37 per cent of the world's population. 3 to 5 years from now, everybody's going to be scrambling to invest. Right now it makes a lot of sense."