Welcome change for spouses arriving in Canada

John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, provides an update on Wednesday, December 16, 2015 on Canada's plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees.
John McCallum, Minister of Immigration,

Immigration Minister John McCallum is planning to introduce changes in the “next couple of months” that will grant permanent resident status to sponsored spouses of Canadians, immediately upon arriving here.
“Excellent news,” said Jamaican-born community leader Maxine Pearson.
“There’s a lot of vulnerability, particularly with women who came here, sponsored,” said MP Gary Anandasangaree (Liberal-Scarborough-Rouge Park).
His riding has a 70.2% visible minority population. He does not see the need for sponsored spouses to wait for two years.
“I campaigned for almost two years. Marriage fraud was not the number one issue that came up related to immigration. I’m sure you may find one or two cases or an odd case here and there but that’s not the overwhelming issue relating to immigration or refugees.
“It’s something deeper and there’s always ways of addressing things like marriage fraud once they’re here and if it’s found to be such,” Anandasangaree said.
McCallum introduced Bill C-6, an Act to amend the Citizenship Act last week which will bring several changes in citizenship law including repealing the government’s power to revoke citizenship from dual citizens convicted of terrorism.
The Stephen Harper Conservative government obtained this authority in 2014 through changes in the Citizenship Act under controversial Bill C-24, the Strengthening of Canadian Citizenship Act
In this act, the Conservatives also added an English or French language proficiency test as a prerequisite to receive Canadian citizenship, in addition to the knowledge test for individuals between age 14 and 64.
McCallum said the language and knowledge tests will remain in place but only for those 18 to 54.