Shambala Sun turned away from immigrant mentorship program

It's enough to make you lose your serenity. An application by Shambala Sun, a well-respected magazine about Buddhism and the contemplative tradition, published in Halifax, was turned down by the federal government's immigration mentorship program.

According to a story in the Halifax Daily News, despite the magazine's award-winning ways it was twice not selected for the work-experience program. The reason? It was said not to provide an introduction to the business community.

Mentor companies selected under the program are given $100,000 and have to agree to give six months of meaningful work and at least $20,000 back to the immigrant as salary. The program has run into problems in various places across the country as participants have criticized the quality of the program, which is intended to give useful work experience and help immigrants integrate into the community.

Shambala Sun is run by the Shambala Sun Foundation, a non-profit organization and has a paid circulation of 75,000.

NDP Immigration critic Leonard Preyra said he has looked at the Shambhala file, and can see no credible reason why the applications were rejected. He believes the magazine is an ethical organization that would have provided good middle-management experience. Certainly as good an experience as a Subway restaurant, a gas station and a laundromat that were selected, according to a list released by the immigration department.

"It's surprising that all of these groups were accepted for mentorships and Shambhala was not," Preyra said. "There may not have been a consistent standard applied."

An April 16 letter from Immigration Office executive director Elizabeth Mills explained Shambhala's rejection.

"It is important to recognize that the primary goal of the business mentor program is to provide economic immigrants with an orientation to the Nova Scotia workplace and to the business environment," she wrote. "Charities and not-for-profit organizations cannot necessarily provide that important introduction to the business community.

"It's not what you know but who you know that appears to have determined if you got placed on a mentorship list," said Preyra. "It's not so much the amounts of money, but the perception that groups connected to the Conservative party or groups connected to Cornwallis got preferential treatment. It's that perception that's just as important as the reality."

Thirteen of the mentors donated a total of $7,261.83 to the ruling Progressive Conservative Party in 2005 and 2006. Quality Cameras and Computers chipped in the smallest amount, at $75. The GEM Health Care Group, which runs a number of nursing homes, gave $3,000, the largest donation.

That's peanuts compared with what the party got from the company that ran the provincial nominee program from December 2002 until June 2006. Cornwallis Financial Corp. kicked in more than $15,000 over a five-year period.

Three of the companies on the list of approved mentors have business connections to Cornwallis president Stephen Lockyer.