January 25, 2003
Ms. L. Haeber
Executive Producer
Information Programming
CBC Radio
Vancouver, B.C.
Dear Ms. Haeber:
Here are some comments about items covered during the week of January
20-25. Behind many local items was a lead national CBC Radio story which stated that Canada was becoming more and more multicultural. This news item of Wednesday, January 22 missed the significance of the Stats Can figures.
The significance is straightforward. It is that there has been
unprecedented immigration to Canada in the last dozen years. It is not, as your local programmes and the national news story stated, that there is anything wondrous about multiculturalism.
All rational human beings who have lived in overcrowded cities, breathed the polluted air, struggled with the noise and problems of traffic, consumed the poor-quality water, watched the neighbouring farmland and greenspace disappear, heard about more and more pressure on their social safety net, and observed their living space
becoming more and more pinched, would love to return to the time when their cities had reached a warning point in their growth.
All rational people would stop and refuse to go beyond that point. They would quickly say all these factors tower above such benighted notions as multiculturalism.
Yet once again, the CBC National News and many regional programmes in this area have jumped on the mindless multicultural bandwagon and produced numerous stories about this topic, proclaiming the wonders of
multiculturalism and diversity. Once again, little connection was drawn between the unprecedented numbers of visible minorities and the fact that the major urban areas of Canada (Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal particularly) have reached points of extreme danger in their growth.
The explosion in growth and population in these areas over the past dozen years has been driven largely by immigration. To go any further in this race, especially for such a mindless prize as “Most Multicultural” or “Most Diverse”, is to enter a completely insane world. Some basic common sense and good stewardship dictate that Canada get out of this lemming race immediately and that CBC reporters, hosts and producers get a grip on the basics of life.
