Waterloo Region Record from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada • 4

Saturday November 3 2012 I WATERLOO REGION RECORD I Canada A4 Skilled immigrant backlog declining The Canadian Press Tory MP inciting anti abortion activists to break law Rae says The Canadian Press A jEJ Hn The Canadian Press RMWin i IN QUOTES I BOB RAE EDERAL LIBERAL LEADER COLDUieiX BANKQR VANCOUVER The federal and provincial gov ernments have been ordered to pay about $1 mil lion in legal costs to the BC lawyers who won a constitutional challenge of ban on doc tor assisted suicide The BC Supreme Court case included West Kelowna resident Gloria Taylor who suffered ALS and had planned to seek an assisted suicide before she died of an infection last month The lawyers for Taylor provided their time for free but then asked the court to award special costs for their legal bills because of the significance of the case Justice Lynn Smith has agreed ruling the case raised major issues about the meaning of the Char ter of Rights and involved fundamental social values and polices OTTAWA A Conservative MP who awarded a Diamond Jubilee medal to a jailed anti abortion crusader could be breaking the law himself interim Liberal leader Bob Rae says Rae says Saskatchewan MP Maurice Vellacott the last week when he nominat ed Mary Wagner for a medal commemorating Queen Eliza 60 years on the throne Wagner is currently in jail in Toronto awaiting trial aster forc ing her way into an abortion clinic in August this aster she was convicted in March of com mitting a similar offence last November In opinion Vellacott went even further over the line this week when he subsequently issued a news release that dis closed correspondence between himself and grateful mother The release carried the head line: as edification and encouragement for encouraging others this one action or another but instead was simply their The Supreme Court has set a high bar for convicting someone of inciting or counselling others to commit an illegal act inter preting incitement to mean tively someone to commit a crime Bernard Dickens professor emeritus with the University of international repro ductive and sexual health law program said he believe Vellacott has crossed that line Nor has he ventured into new territory for a politician in prais ing someone engaged in civil disobedience Dickens pointed out that many Canadians including politicians supported Dr Henry Morgentaler during the 1960s and 1970s when he openly defied the laws that prohibited or limited a right to choose abor tion Still the Harper government has prided itself on its "tough on agenda cracking down on repeat offenders and those who incite crimes this could clearly be Interpreted as Inciting others to break the law which in itself is a criminal offence" TORONTO The Harper gov ernment says a backlog of skilled immigrant applications which has clogged the system for years is declining rapidly and will be eliminated by the end of next year Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says about 100000 appli cations are still in the system compared with 640000 just a few years ago He told a news conference the eradication of the waiting list means a new immigrant labour pool from which employers and provinces can choose will be established ahead of schedule The backlog was culled by a measure in last conten tious omnibus bill which threw out 280000 applications filed prior to 2008 a controversial could clearly be interpreted as inciting others to break the law which in itself is a criminal of Rae told The Canadian Press Rae said up to the police to determine whether to pursue the matter But he added: broader question is this: Does Mr (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper con done members of his caucus encouraging people to harass women seeking medical services and break the law? a prosecution would be successful is not in my purview But the issue of political responsibility is clear Vellacott declined an inter view But a spokespersorf Tim Bloedow said the MP was not encouraging anyone to engage in outrageous backlogs and wait times of the and will bring people who are likely to find and keep good jobs into the country system had become totally dysfunctional It was broken and it was getting Kenney said action was necessary The Conservatives in 2008 imposed limits on the number of skilled immigrant applications they would accept and with that action alone Kenney says the backlog was sliced in half Kenney has also announced that Canada plans to admit be tween 53500 to 55300 new Cana dians in 2013 under the revamped federal skilled worker program which will be geared more to ward accepting young people Overall immigration targets will remain frozen at between 240000 and 265000 'V OTTAWA The Supreme Court of Canada has fine tuned the drunk driving laws by defining a defence in a breathalyzer case In a 5 2 split decision the justices have thrown out two provisions put into the law by the Conser vative government's 2008 Tackling Violent Crime Act Those changes required that a defendant who raised a reasonable doubt about the functioning or operation of the breathalyzer machine also had to prove the reading was too high and that the driver had not consumed enough alcohol to produce it The justices say those last two provisions go too far They say once a reasonable doubt has been raised about the machine that should be enough They add few defendants are going to be able to show the machine work or the operator made a mistake short the accused might rely for example on a maintenance log that shows that the instru ment was not maintained properly or on admis sions by the technician that there had been erratic results or he or she might argue that health prob lems had affected the functioning of the instru now retired justice Marie Deschamps wrote for the majority She said a long shot defence should be noted that the defence created by Parliament is not illusory simply because accused persons will rarely succeed in raising a reasonable doubt that the instrument was functioning or was operated properly" Lawyers get $1M in right to die case I 1 itrifMior yH Attend Our Career Night on Monday November 5th from 7 9 pm Must register by calling519 742 5800 ext 2004 or careersQcoldwellbankerpbrcom "vV ind out about licensing requirements and i i iiAsimttMimwr move that saw I the federal gUVVUUlKHll refund $130 million in ap plication fees Without flushing the system it was Jason Kenney estimated the backlog be cleared until 2017 but the decision is being chal lenged in court by lawyers who plan to launch a class action lawsuit on behalf of people whose applications were expelled Kenney says by the end of next year the government will be able to process skilled immigrant applications within a year rather than eight years which had be come the norm He says the reforms are ly unshackling Canada from the Supreme Court decision fine tunes drunk driving law The Canadian Press tot VllN 4 5 i W' wwwcoldwslldsnksrpbrcvm ijf ys A )1 1 i fl Jt 7R LX s' TR ufnS rat a I Electric cjd 8 Natural Gasi 1 A Lh AG 4 i Zra I i I I I I ICz HL I W7v WM' 1 My I Iw Be? 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