A Bit More Detail

Buju Banton, a Jamaican reggae star perhaps best known outside reggae fandom for homophobia, whether the murderous sentiments expressed in songs like "Boom Bye Bye" ("World is in trouble/Anytime Buju Banton come/Batty bwoy get up an run/At gunshot me head back") or for his joining in a mob assault on gay men in Jamaica, has been arrested on cocaine charges in Florida. Good for him.

A few years ago, I stated forthrightly that so long as murderous homophobia is popular in Jamaica and supported to one degree or another by the Jamaican government, the country can go rot. Why would I want to visit a place where that sort of behaviour is acceptable? Who would? If things improve, fine, but I've no interest in waiting. Uganda's anti-gay bill, passed by factions with a worrying amount of support by American evangelicals and so far lacking much of the opposition one might have hoped churches to voice against that sort of murderous persecution, makes me think the same way about that country.

Except. Joe. My. God. made a couple of posts (1, 2) about Banton's arrest, and while the number of Buju Banton supporters appearing to defend their star was annoying (no, he is not the next Martin Luther King) the number of commenters who were responding to those commenters using language little short of racist was shocking. To what extent, I wonder, does support for equal rights for any minority and disgust at a country that intentionally falls short correspond with bigotry of one kind or another?

The Globe and Mail's Wency Leung takes a look at what may well become a significant new destination for Jamaican immmigrants.

Mr. Reid, 38, is among the first of hundreds of Jamaican students to attend Kelowna's Okanagan College, recruited to help fill a shortage of skilled workers in the Okanagan and the rest of the province.

Under an experimental, "interprovincial refresher" program, the college expects to train and find job placements for between 300 and 400 Jamaican students this school year in high-demand trades such as culinary arts, automotive collision repair and carpentry.

The sudden influx of students from Jamaica is bringing cultural diversity to the campus and local work force, which has never before had a significant Caribbean population.

"It's definitely changing the cultural landscape," Okanagan College president Jim Hamilton said. "Certainly as you go around the community, we see many more people of Caribbean origin than we ever did before."

About 16 months ago, the college, which has a full-time student population of more than 7,000, didn't have one Jamaican student, he said.

But since it began recruiting students from Jamaica, a country where skilled labour is high but jobs are scarce, the Jamaican population on campus has started to swell.

The unusual relationship between Okanagan College and Jamaica was initiated by Michael Patterson, a Jamaican-born marketing professor at the college.

Seeing an opportunity to fill the needs of both local employers and tradespeople in his native country, Prof. Patterson believed the college could help bridge that gap.

"It's a win-win," he said, adding that the college is selecting only highly skilled students who will adjust well to life in Canada. "When you take people in with no skill, people who are desperate ... that is where you get problems, and we're looking for a particular type of people coming in."

In June, the college began training the first group of 37 Jamaican students under the program, including Mr. Reid. Two weeks ago, it started training a second group of 40.

Students in the program are screened by the Jamaican government and the college before they can enroll, ensuring that they have at least six years of experience in the field they intend to study. They then attend 16 weeks of instruction at Okanagan College, broken up by 16 weeks of paid work in the field.

At the end of the training, students take a test to earn their Red Seal certification, which qualifies them as journeymen in Canada. They then have the option of applying to become permanent Canadian residents through a provincial program that accelerates immigration for qualified skilled workers.

The Jamaican-Canadian population is at present overwhelmingly concentrated in the large cities of central Canada. The formation of a Jamaican-Canadian population in Canada's western provinces--of any Caribbean immigrant community, for that matter--is unprecedented to the best of my knowledge. Notice, also, the concentration on skilled immigrants as opposed to a more representative cross-section of the Jamaican population.