Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2025 (353 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PARENT, GRANDPARENT SPONSORSHIP HALTED

OTTAWA — Canada will not accept new parent and grandparent permanent residency sponsorship applications until further notice, according to a ministerial directive.

The directive published in the Canada Gazette states the government remains committed to family reunification but will focus on processing applications received last year.

According to the directive, it’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s opinion that this will “best support” the government’s goals around immigration and family reunification.

Other immigration streams have also seen new sponsorships paused to help clear the existing backlog.

Under the government’s immigration levels plan, which sees an overall decrease in immigration over the next three years, the goal is to admit more than 24,000 people through the parent and grandparent stream this year.

The new directive says a maximum of 15,000 applications made in 2024 through the family reunification program will be processed.

Under the parent and grandparent program, 35,700 randomly selected people were invited to submit applications in 2024, with the goal of accepting 20,500 applications.

According to the 2024 annual report to Parliament on immigration, tabled by Miller, there were more than 40,000 parent and grandparent permanent residency sponsorships in the inventory as of the end of 2023.

That report says the average processing time for a sponsorship application was 24 months.

MORE CHARGES IN KILLING OF MAFIA RELATIVE

Montreal police say two more people have been arrested in the brazen daytime killing of a 39-year-old woman in front of her beauty salon in May 2023.

Claudia Iacono, 39, was the daughter-in-law of the late Moreno Gallo, a reputed mob boss who was killed in 2013 in Acapulco, Mexico, after being deported from Canada.

Iacono was married to one of his sons.

Kalial Nesfield, 28, was charged today with first-degree murder while Shaniqwa Parris, 31, was charged with manslaughter in connection with the killing of Iacono.

Both will return to court at a later date, police said.

Police arrived at a parking lot outside the salon Iacono owned in Montreal’s Cote-des-Neiges district on May 16, 2023, to find the victim in a vehicle that had collided with a building and was still running.

She had been shot dead, police said.

Two people have already been charged in the homicide.

Joel Richard Clarke was charged in June 2023 with first-degree murder. Tyranne Andre Greenidge was also charged with first-degree murder in August 2023.

Both were arrested in the Toronto area.

CHARGES AGAINST SASK. COP DROPPED

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — Charges have been dropped against a Saskatchewan police officer accused of negligence in the death of a man in custody.

Prince Albert police Sgt. Tyson Morash was charged with criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessities of life after Saul Laliberte was found unresponsive in his jail cell in November 2021.

The 33-year-old was pronounced dead at Victoria Hospital.

Saskatchewan Justice spokesman Noel Busse says the officer’s charges were stayed last month after a review to determine whether the case met the standard for prosecution.

He says the review found there was neither a reasonable likelihood of conviction nor a public interest in the case moving forward.

Police have said Laliberte was in custody after turning himself in for several outstanding warrants.

» The Canadian Press