Three Issues: A Dying Chinatown, Ignoring First Nations Unemployed, Spinning Mass Murder to Perpetuate Mass Immigration
(1) A Dying Chinatown
One of the great ironies of Canada's mass immigration policy is not only that Canadian history and the architecture created by the majority population have been erased by the immigration inflow, but that the history and architecture created by ethnic groups are also getting erased.
For example, the long-term Chinese in the Vancouver area are now saying that Vancouver's Chinatown is dying. Why? The new Chinese who have arrived from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China since 1990 have created their own Chinatowns. The largest of the new sites is actually the city of Richmond which tens of thousands of newly-arrived Chinese have moved into. They have bought not only the houses, but also the businesses and have created a residential and commercial area which is completely different from the one that the long-term Chinese had built. The long-term Chinese are now complaining that the new Chinese, whose arrival they helped to cheerlead, are killing an important part of Chinese-Canadian history on Canada's west coast. The irony is that the long-term Chinese got not only what they wished and campaigned for, but something else that they really did not want.
(2) Deja Vu: Ignoring Canada's Unemployed, Particularly First Nations Unemployed
A China-backed mining company, which plans to open a huge coal mine in Northeastern B.C., says that it wants to bring in a workforce of 400 from China to mine the coal. Ironically, the request for Chinese workers is similar to the requests for Chinese workers made by Chinese businessmen in the Vancouver area over 100 years ago. At that time, the Chinese businessmen imported Chinese labourers from China, paid them much less than Canadian workers would have received and displaced many Canadians from their jobs, forcing Canadians into unemployment or causing them to move out of British Columbia to look for work. Canadian workers fought back by demanding that Chinese low-wage labourers be taxed to discourage Chinese businessmen from bringing them to Canada or that the workers be excluded from coming.
B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair has rightly protested the current proposal to bring in Chinese labourers. In addition, Mining Association of British Columbia CEO Michael McPhie has rightly said that “the concept of importing an entire mine crew is something that we have not seen before”. “And we would want to take a really serious look at the implications.”
Even the mining company's project description admits that immigration of up to 400 employees into small communities will have “cultural and social ramifications” but that the company would work with local governments and community representatives to “alleviate potential impacts”.
Those who still do not want to admit that there was ample justification for the original Chinese Head Taxes should listen carefully to statements being made today. “Canadian Workers First” statements were used in the past as the reasons for the Head Taxes and the Chinese (Labourer) Exclusion Act. There is absolutely no doubt that these 400 Chinese workers should be “excluded” from entering Canada and that the mining company should be compelled to adopt a “Canadian Workers First” policy if it wants to extract Canadian resources. Who will protect Canadian workers if Canada's own government does not?
The mine will be located near Chetwynd, a town of 2500 which is close to three First Nations reserves, all of which suffer from high unemployment and whose workers are under-represented in the area's petroleum and gas industries.
First Nations Band Councils across Canada should have made statements on the immigration issue long ago. They should have demanded a significant share of new jobs. It is intolerable, on the one hand, to have unemployment rates of 70 to 90% on First Nations Reserves and, on the other hand, to see Canada's federal government bringing in hundreds of thousands of immigrants to fill jobs. A relative boom in employment should be a time for federal and provincial governments to ensure jobs for Canada's own unemployed, particularly First Nations people, who are often not even counted in the number of unemployed.
Even subsidizing travelling costs of unemployed Canadians, especially First Nations from remote reserves, is probably cheaper than subsidizing administrative (and other) costs of immigrants who travel from distant countries to Canada. Further subsidizing immigrants with social assistance once they arrive makes no sense–yet Canada continues to do this with hundreds of thousands of recent immigrants. Our federal government should not be submitting to the hysteria of some employers who have exaggerated Canada's labour shortage in order to obtain cheap labour (permanent and temporary) from outside Canada.
(3) Spinning Mass Murder To Perpetuate Mass Immigration
The Air India Inquiry has provided some strange new demands. Some newspapers have featured headlines saying that CSIS and the RCMP were responsible for the Air India bombing. Some Sikhs are even demanding an apology.
Excuse us, please!!
Although no one has yet been found guilty of the bombing, there is no doubt that this mass murder of 329 people was the result of a conflict between two groups: Sikhs and other Indo-Canadians. This ethnic conflict had little to do with the lives of most Canadians. Even though bungling occurred prior to and after the bombing, it is ludicrous to imply that the RCMP and CSIS should bear primary responsibility for this tragedy.
It is particularly ludicrous for some Sikhs to be demanding an apology. All Sikhs know that members of their own group were the ones who assembled the bomb, packed it, took it to the Vancouver airport and bullied airport employees into accepting the suitcase which travelled unaccompanied by a passenger and which contained the bomb. All Sikhs also know that the plotters have successfully intimidated those who have key information into saying nothing. As a result, the tragedy has gone unpunished for over 22 years. Instead of trying to blame others, Sikhs should have long ago taken measures to root out the plotters.
By now, Canada's New Government should have realized that apologies such as the one being demanded will result in even more demands. Also, those who make demands for apologies have other motives, particularly immigration motives. To put the matter bluntly, mass murder should not be spun in order to perpetuate mass immigration.
