Changes in the Canadian Government’s immigration policies, including the outright elimination of any reference to a prospective immigrant’s religion, were announced here by the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration. Tom Kent, Deputy Minister of Immigration and Manpower notified the Canadian Jewish Congress that “all questions relating to race and religion have been eliminated from documentation of applications for immigration to Canada as not pertinent to the immigrant’s selection.”
“The reason,” Mr. Kent told the CJC, “is that the department is engaged in a program to remove from its administrative procedures every appearance or implication of racial or other discrimination. Heretofore the department had required applicants to state their ethnic origin and religious affiliation. As long as this is done, it is impossible altogether to avoid the suspicion that race or religion has a bearing on whether the immigrant is to be admitted.” Mr. Kent added that the Government wanted “to make it completely clear that race or religion play no part in immigrant selection.”
Jean Marchand, Minister of Immigration and Manpower, announced at the same time that other changes were being put into effect regarding immigration to Canada. He declared: “A more flexible approach to educational qualifications will be taken. In addition, other factors will be given almost equal status in determining if an immigrant should be admitted. One was the personal assessment of the would-be immigrant by Canadian immigration experts. The second was the availability of jobs in Canada in the category or categories for which the potential immigrant was suited.”
M. Marchand also announced liberalization of the rules regarding sponsorship of immigrants. He made those announcements at a meeting of the joint House of Commons-Senate Committee on Immigration. Representatives of the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services had appeared before that joint committee, submitting the views of Canada’s Jewish community relating to immigration.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
