Canada AM is currently airing a series on the issues surrounding immigration in Canada.

Here is a selection of viewer comments.

Regarding Canada AM's recent series on internationally trained professionals, which featured accountants who said they were having problems getting their training recognized in this country.

Canada's Chartered Accountants have been widely recognized for helping internationally trained professionals enter the workforce to meet the growing demand for CAs. Comprehensive online information enables them to fully assess their prospects before making the decision to immigrate.

In Ontario, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities have worked in partnership on a project to produce a Career Path outlining licensure and certification requirements for chartered accountancy and public accounting, for use by prospective immigrants and newcomers to Ontario. It is available on the Internet at: .

Accountants from around the world are also able to easily get customized information, based on their personal circumstances, that outlines the education and training requirements for becoming a CA in this province. Help is available by calling the Registrar's Office of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario at 416-962-1841 or toll free at 1-800-387-0735 or by emailing custserv@icao.on.ca.

We hope this clarifies matters for your viewers.

Perry Jensen, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, Toronto, ON

I watch Canada AM every morning and love your show. A few times I wanted to write in about one thing or another but never took the time. Today, this subject touches me very closely. I am Canadian born professional.

I just wanted to say enough is enough about immigrants that come to this Country expecting that we will treat them like we owe them everything. A LOT of Canadians, with diplomas, are working as waiters and waitresses, cashiers and floor salespersons in boutiques until they find the job in the field they have studied. Moreover, a lot of these immigrants have limited language skills and when an employer needs an employee who may have contacts with clients, the employee must be understood by the employer's clients -- we would expect that from Canadian born people as well.

So please immigrants, work at whatever you can find work in like we do and simply wait your turn like we do.

Simone

We are immigrants to Canada and we, too, have not found suitable work. We can not even get an interview. We received extra points for our education and experience from Immigration. We are college and university professors with degrees from the USA and all our teaching experience is from the USA.

We did choose the wrong province (New Brunswick) because we were looking for affordable housing, since we were not abandoning our pets but bringing them with us.

But I was told in order to be considered to teach I would need a BA from a New Brunswick university. I already have a BA and an MA and 12 years teaching experience in class and online. It is a bit comical since New Brunswick has an abysmal literacy rate.

I was told they really did not need teachers-I teach English and my husband teaches science. He had to return to the States to work since all New Brunswick has to offer is working for Call Centers, which are little more than sweat shops and completely dehumanizing.

We had to show five years worth of living expenses in a Canadian bank - and that figure was not an accurate amount for subsistence living. This is a rich country and is as poorly run as the USA. And it shows in roads, education, and health care. This is a beautiful country and many people are very nice. But the considerable culture shock was unexpected!

Nora Qudus, N.B.

Thanks for your recent coverage on immigration issues around employment. As an immigrant myself, I echo the experience shared by other immigrants in your stories.

I would also like to mention about the three month waiting period policy for Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). Many new immigrants face tremendous stress in settlement, employment etc. If they are sick in the first 3 months or involved in accidents which cause injuries, they will face serious financial hardships as OHIP coverage is not available.

Considering the high cost of hospital beds, surgery, medication and lab tests, many of them have to carry high debt for many years which is an extra huge burden to new immigrants and create tremendous hardship which then also jeopardize their physical and mental health. It costs taxpayers higher health costs in the long run.

I had conducted a qualitative research on Impacts of the OHIP 3 month waiting period under the supervision of Dr. Bonnie Burstow, University of Toronto. If you are interested in getting a full report, please let me know. I hope you can have time to cover this important issue in your program.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Miu Lin Wong

Community Health Educator,

Patient Education Network and Women's Health Initiative Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto ON

I am very pleased to hear that CTV is doing a series on problems faced by new immigrants. An issue that is seldom at the forefront is the three-month wait for health insurance for new arrivals in some Provinces, including Ontario -- the Province that receives most immigrants.

Immigrants are carefully screened and selected for the contribution

that they can make to Canadian society, yet Ontario places an immediate barrier upon them as soon as they arrive, by denying them access to health care on the same basis as other residents.

This policy does not only violate the Equity and Access provisions enshrined in the Canada Health Act, it is also an issue of human rights. We are in effect saying to these new arrivals: "Go to the back of the bus, you are not equal to other Canadians until you have served your time."

Ahsan Sadiq, Co-Chair, Right to Healthcare Coalition

I think there are a lot of young people with BA's and other degrees from Canadian universities who are doing jobs that don't require more than a high school diploma and some on the job training (i.e. most retail jobs). These 20-something and 30-somethings probably also think -- like many immigrants -- that employers aren't valuing their university education and that they are being shut out of white-collar jobs.

Immigrants really need to get more information on what to expect in Canada before they land in Canada. Maybe there should be a mandatory orientation course on the Canadian labour market in their home country that would discuss their credentials and work experience and their proficiency in speaking and writing in English or French.

Shirley

I watched your program on issues surrounding immigrants and their entry into the Canadian job market on CTV: Canada AM on Tuesday, July 3, 2007. During the past few years, I have watched many such programs addressing the same issue on different Canadian broadcasts. As a Canadian citizen who has lived, worked and paid taxes in Canada for the past twenty years of my life, an unemployed PhD with advanced degrees from the top two universities in Canada, I'd like to express my intense disagreement with the media propaganda being made about new immigrants and their problems in finding jobs in Canada.

First of all, in light of the recent shifts in Canadian immigration policies, many new immigrants in Canada have extensive financial resources and well-established social networks already in place when they arrive in their new country. They also have access to many different social organizations that strive to assist them in their process of integration and settlement into the Canadian mainstream society. These are all privileges that my generation of immigrants who came to Canada twenty years ago (or before that) did not enjoy. In my experience, I have watched many new immigrants who have come to Canada from different countries, get admission into doctoral and professional degrees with more ease and financial support (from academic institutions) than someone like me.

Secondly, it is also my belief that many of these new immigrants are given preference over others when it comes to finding employment out of "guilt" caused by the common misconception that are financially disadvantaged and in dire need for work and employment. Although, I do not ignore the fact that factors such as gender, race and religion work against certain segments of population, whether new immigrants or Canadian-born citizens, as a Muslim woman from the Middle East who was educated in Canada, and consider myself nothing but a Canadian, I have sometimes felt that it was not one's immigrant status, nor gender, nor race that affects his or her access to employment; rather, it is access to social networks and connection to those in positions of power. As an unemployed PhD from a Canadian Ivy League and holding an astronomical student loan, I stand by and observe those who enter the Canadian academia with lesser qualifications, and higher chances of being funded and later employed, mostly because of their financial abilities, and national and international connections.

I do not intend to ridicule or trivialize the experiences of those who are struggling, but I truly believe that this issue should be looked at from different perspectives and also consider the realities of Canadian job market. The bottom line is: Canada does not and cannot afford to support and promise a better life to educated immigrants. From this standpoint, Canada should stop importing them and giving them even more opportunities to become even more educated, and therefore more entitled, and instead focus on creating jobs for frustrated tax-paying Canadian citizens.

Anonymous

I am currently entering my fourth year of medical school overseas. I hope your series on foreign trained doctors will touch on the subject that the province of Quebec, is the only province which requires that you graduate first before even being allowed to apply to write exams for equivalency to be licensed in that province. Other provinces allow you to write the "MCCEE" within 9 months of graduation. This allows you to be able to enter residency matches for the following July upon graduation.

What this means is that there will always be unfilled spots in Quebec, since if you must graduate first, then apply for equivalency exams, you miss your match for the coming July and have to sit out a year waiting to do the exams and apply for the match that has taken place!

This is completely ridiculous, why would any foreign grad want to sit around for a year waiting for the match?

Warren Albert

My suggestion would be that Ontario hire international doctors as nurse practitioners while they are waiting or studying to complete their Ontario qualifications. I believe that nurse practitioners are currently paid $85,000 per year and are able to diagnose and prescribe to some degree.

Wayne Dailey, Brockville, Ont.