Immigration Minister Judy Sgro resigned from her cabinet post on Friday, January 14. during a meeting with Prime Minister Paul Martin. She was replaced by Human Resources Minister Joe Volpe.

CIC is fast-tracking existing applications of Family Class applicants under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act who have been and continue to be seriously and personally affected by the disaster and who have immediate family members in Canada.

The Ontario government and CIC are jointly investing $3.4 million over two years to support 13 projects under the Enhanced Language Training Initiative. The projects will deliver job-specific language training to more than 1,300 internationally trained individuals to help them make the transition to Ontario’s workforce.

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and Natural Resources Minister John Efford announced on January 7 that Canada has accepted the recommendation of an independent report to increase the annual budget of the Canadian Section of the International Boundary Commission to $2.4 million from the current $830,000.

The Year 2004 ended on a sour note for humans. The images and numbers coming out of tsunami-ravaged South and South East Asia are starkest in the absence of commentary.

“Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers…”
- Blanche DuBois

I mean this blog to be of particular interest to Americans who do not wince at the sight of Tom DeLay. I sense some of you are fence-sitting on the issue of establishing a foothold in Canada and are a bit confused over the implications of such an undertaking. As my contribution to setting right some of the mistaken notions about a move to Canada, I offer samplings of my recent conversations with prospective American clients.

Q. If I gain Canadian status, will I lose my American citizenship?