Average hourly wage in Canada now $34.95: StatCan
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
As COVID-19 takes its toll around the world, it's only made life harder for the record number of refugees.
On Friday, a report from the United Nations refugee agency revealed that in 2020, there were 82.4 million people globally who were forcibly displaced from their homes. That's one out of every 95 people around the world.
This figure is up four per cent from 2019, when the refugee population was at 79.5 million, and has been increasing for the last nine consecutive years.
Filippo Grandi, the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, sat down with CTV's Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme to discuss the worsening refugee crisis and how it's been affected by the pandemic ahead of World Refugee Day this Sunday.
Below is a transcript of the interview, edited for length and clarity:
Lisa LaFlamme: The global refugee crisis is just getting worse and worse. What are your projections going forward if something does not change?
Filippo Grandi: We'll have to continue to work, unfortunately, to address the humanitarian consequences of constantly rising displacement. This year, statistics are showing the for the ninth consecutive year an increase of several million. But we must restore the ability of the international community to deal with the root causes of these movement
LaFlamme: So, is there the political will to reverse this?
Grandi: I think there is a sense of interest. Forced migration has become such a global phenomenon. Unfortunately, the problem is that the "my country first" approach prevails look it's what's happening with the vaccines.
LaFlamme: World leaders, including Canada, have really been focused on protecting their own populations, as you say. Have they then just turned a blind eye to this growing refugee crisis?
Grandi: Canada has actually been one of the most coherent and consistent governments in trying to address every aspect of the human mobility crisis. Canada is also one of our largest donors.
LaFlamme: 160 countries closed their borders at the peak of this pandemic. So, what countries in your opinion did emerge as a sort of a model to follow on how to still ensure access to people seeking protection?
Grandi: Governments had to protect their communities, their population. But in that, I think that the countries that stood out, if I may say, are the countries that kept borders open in spite of that, or rather, that allowed asylum seekers refugees, pressing at their borders to come in. And this is essentially poor countries.
LaFlamme: The theme of this year's World Refugee Day is about the power of inclusion.
Grandi: I always say inclusion is the new protection for refugees. And this includes inclusion in vaccinations, for example. If you look at the COVID response, who was on the frontlines? Migrants and refugees were, with their knowledge, with their expertise, with their availability, when health staff was short everywhere. That's proof of how they can contribute.
LaFlamme: Inclusion is the new protection. Okay, much work could be done. Filippo Grandi, we thank you so much for your time tonight.
Grandi: Thank you very much.
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
A 4.2-magnitude earthquake was recorded west of Vancouver Island early Friday morning.
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.
Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Toronto police say a man who allegedly attempted to access Drake’s Bridle Path property was taken to hospital on Thursday after an altercation with security guards.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.