Citizenship and Immigration committee  I support both Anila and Fatima in what they have said. Racial discrimination coupled with gender discrimination has always been and will always be our priority. We want Canada to be sensitive towards racialized immigrant women who come our way.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can offer my thoughts on that. I mentioned that we are probably the biggest settlement agency in Canada. Fifteen years ago, CIWA's capacity—obviously, that is always defined by the budget—was $1.5 million. We are now approaching $19 million in funding. Based on that, in black a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. I'm absolutely in favour of that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Maybe Fatima could start this time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can add a little bit to that. The notion of policies is very important, because they guide all of us, right? They guide the funding decisions, and they guide the funding implementation for all of us. However, the world is not black and white, and this might be an unfortunat

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will jump in and add very quickly that unconscious bias is a phenomenon about which we all need to have knowledge. It comes from a lack of education and understanding of the issue. Some of us are more educated in one area and more experienced in one area and some of us are not

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can continue. When it comes to barriers and racialized populations, our agency can add gender to the context of this discussion. I'm quite sure that Fatima can support it, and Anila, obviously; they also serve women. When you add those three components and connect them with th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely, for many of our clients. The Filipino community has been very unique in terms of trepidations and concerns about being engaged with any kind of social system and, certainly, government supports, because of their inherent experiences with the system. Our primary

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. The Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association has worked with a total of about 23 officers over the years. I believe about 27% of them were racialized. We believe that as a settlement agency, the highest level of helpfulness that we can provide in relation to the study is

Status of Women committee  Obviously, accreditation rules are being done in collaboration with employers, and they're very demanding. That's why with accredited positions it takes longer for immigrants to be processed. For accreditation, typically, the post-secondary institutions have taken it on because o

Status of Women committee  Is that a question for me?

Status of Women committee  I can. Thank you. I mentioned to you that we are the largest settlement organization with a gender-specific mandate in Canada. What has been done well in Calgary is investment into the needs assessment that we presented to the federal government. Certainly the majority of our fu

Status of Women committee  Have I understood you properly? Do you mean immigrant women who speak French?

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. We provide literacy training and language instruction for newcomers to Canada for over 350 women at one time in our organization. Obviously, throughout the first year the government provides support for all permanent residents. It provides financial support for those

Status of Women committee  What happens is that they take a few courses at a time, so that they can put them on their resumé, and they go and compete for jobs. In Canada, an accent can be a blessing or a curse. It's always in the eye of the beholder to take the responsibility to gauge the skills and langua