Recognition of foreign qualifications in Canada

macleans.ca/economy/business/land-of-misfortune/
This is what happen in CANADA1

Answer to your question is yes and no.

Yes, in that I had to return to the medical field but no, after an unsuccessful bid in publishing/journalism in Vancouver: the media landscape is changing and contracting - media outlets are closing, merging or relying on freelance rather than part-time or full-time reporters.

As the media becomes watered down in covering its community - most days the local dailies look like ad papers rather than newspapers - people are learning less and less about the community they live in.

The big media outlets have sewed up the ad dollars - I know as a former publisher/editor of a short-lived weekly in Vancouver - making startups nearly impossible.

it is recognized... but depends .... medical field needs exam and certification on base of your back home qualifications.  If your university is part of commonwealth ...will be little easy to get qualified for exam... For engineering is not a problem. But most of te profession have a licensing here. engineering/medical/accounting... I will say you should go for licensing for related profession otherwise if somebody interested in carrer change..

It is easy to say "yes or No". The fact is, there is no clear cut regulation what exams are required, they keep changing the exams every time unlike other countries.
In USA, it is simple 1,2,3 then residency, or in Australia, you do the first Australian medical exam and they put you for rural setup and move on. However, in Canada  make you take EE, Q1, Q2 and now NAC OSCE,  then no guarantee what's so ever, even you pass those expensive exams. What will be the reason for IMG to pay 1750, 2500/ exam, if there is no going be any hope for them?
Yes as you said about commonwealth thing has been exploited well by South Africans and other European graduates as they have been given preference and green light than other countries, which I think is discrimination based on where your training is  but number of African and other countries which have good medical school and recognized by the ECOC or WHO have no spot at all.
Worst scenario is, even for some of us Canadian who went oversea to get our training at big expense, still straggle to make living. Can you imagine to be unemployed while you are physician, worst thing you can't even call yourself MD as if just Canada is the only country who can awarded that privilege while you earn your title by hard work . This is based on my personal experience, where I have been told that I can't call my self a doctor were I almost exploded in to rage. I know the medical school has given me that privilege without any doubt.
Then I suggest all ppl who read my comment to ask themselves why is this happening? And picture the shortage of MD's we have nationally. How many of you do you go to hospital and get the service on time without to wait 6 hours, or to a GP, office and couldn't see you more than 5 minute, or you just couldn't find the doctor you want? But this could of been taken care of by IMG.
The hurdles are huge for an IMG there is always stumbling block every where, medical school say we don't have spot, politicians say we don't have enough budget, while communities are straggling to keep clinicians retain their post long enough.
I know most IMG's are even willing to fund the cost from their pocket, though the greedy collages and regulatory bodies are strangulating the system so us to monitor the market (demand and supply) of doctors, just simply to extend the non retiaries to continue working until their brain infarct. Or to say,  oh well,  we got now nurse practitioners who can do almost what a doctor can do. In my view, it is simply to discredited the hard work ernes of doctors and simply to in power some feminist. We cant bring gender equality by changing the paradigm and creating new job description Give them a spot to join medical school and get the name a practitioner. Doctors have been working hard in the medical field by utilizing evidence based practice to benefited the  health care system. Of course the nursing profession too, I'm not discrediting one by prising another.
That's what I see in Canada!
And I advise doctors to make their own mind and make right decision before considering to come Canada. I myself regret for the choice I made, but I'm a citizen where can I go besides home?