Canada’s and the United States’ Enduring Partnership
Senator Omidvar gave a statement to recognize lasting relationship between Canada and the US.
Canada-US relations
OPINION: Canada must dare to help the ‘DREAMers’
Canada’s response cannot be naively idealistic, nor should it be fuelled by cynicism. We cannot welcome each and every one of these so-called DREAMers, but at the same time we shouldn’t refuse their entry into Canada altogether.
This Canadian Senator Wants DACA Deportees to Come to Canada
Ratna Omidvar, an independent senator appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016, says DREAMers, as DACA recipients are known, are the "ripe, low-hanging fruit" of immigrants—young people who, in many cases, speak English, are high-school graduates, and have work experience. They have also undergone criminal background checks as a prerequisite to getting DACA status.
WATCH: Senator Omidvar talks DREAMers on CBC’s Power and Politics
Senator Ratna Omidvar explains why she thinks U.S. DACA recipients could apply as international students to Canada.
Canada should welcome up to 30,000 DACA young people facing deportation in U.S., senator says
"So, here are people who could apply for international student programs. Universities and colleges could come up with some special initiative or special outreach — college-to-college, university-to-university — maybe even a special scholarship program. But over time, they would be top of the line for economic integration," Omidvar added.
OPINION: Compassion must guide our next steps for Haitian asylum seekers
About 150 asylum seekers have arrived in Quebec each day for several weeks. Most are Haitians with temporary visas to the United States granted in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, a protection President Donald Trump has threatened to end.
OPINION: Canada should welcome America’s ‘dreamers’
This is the moment for Canada to extend the Canadian dream southward to young adults entangled in U.S. immigration and border control. A planned policy to welcome undocumented young people would easily fit Canadian immigration-policy goals.
VIDEO: Independent Senator Talks about How Canada Should Help Refugees left behind because of Trump’s executive order
Senator Ratna Omidvar says that Canada should establish a global response and build a coalition of countries willing to take refugees stranded by Trump's executive order.
The Senate’s champion of diversity
The senator sat down with iPolitics on October 6 in a vacant office at the University of Ottawa’s Fauteux Building after giving a keynote speech to a group of law students, interested in refugee law, from across Canada. The address was part of the first student-led conference of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers.