The Environmental and Social Consequences of the “Canada Is A Vast Empty Space” Immigration Lobby
Dear Premier and Fellow MLA's:
Undoubtedly, you and other Canadians have heard the latest chapter in the phenomenal saga of the Avian Flu outbreak just ouside the Greater Vancouver area.. The disease continues to spread among the area's 19 million birds—all of whom will be destroyed. As of April 14, 2004, 28 farms have been infected with the disease. Originally, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency planned to incinerate all the diseased birds, but the sheer number of birds to be incinerated is so large that existing facilities cannot handle them.
Facing loud opposition from both urban (Burnaby) and rural (Princeton) incineration proposals, the British Columbia provincial government, in co-operation with the federal agency, now wants to ship diseased birds to the village of Cache Creek. This area is about 150 miles northeast on the Trans-Canada Highway of the diseased area. It already receives some of Greater Vancouver's waste. The problem now is that the residents of the area have erected a road blockade and are refusing to accept any diseased birds. They have stated that a clause in their agreement with the Greater Vancouver area stipulates that no hazardous materials would be dumped at the Cache Creek site. The people there fear for their own health and that of human and non-human residents of B.C.'s Interior.
Here are a few related ideas for you to ponder:
(1) Mr. Thomas Tancredo, a Colorado Congressman, recently introduced a bill which would require the American government to conduct a study of the ecological impacts of legal and illegal immigration. Mr. Tancredo pointed out that such studies are regularly carried out on projects with minor impact, yet no such studies have been done on legal and illegal immigration which involves the major impact of adding millions of people annually to the geographic area of the U.S.A.. (Mr. Tancredo's short press release is provided below.)
(2) Although you and some of your fellow elected officials may feel
squeamish about such a proposal, you should be aware by now that Canada's mass immigration policy has been a major contributing factor to the concentration of poultry farms in the area just ouside Greater Vancouver. As a result, mass immigration and this phenomenal Avian Flu outbreak are very much related. You and your fellow elected officials cannot ignore the connection. Like the U.S. and any other country, Canada needs legislation to determine the environmental impacts of immigration.
(3) As Canada prepares for its next federal election, nomination meetings are being held in federal ridings all across Canada. In several ridings, mass ethnic sign-ups have occurred just before nominations. In these ridings, members of ethnic groups have combined to vote for and elect a member of their own ethnic group. As numerous commentators have stated, these voters have chosen ethnicity over issues. In effect, ethnic voters have made ethnicity the only issue.
The presence of elected officials who think that ethnicity is the most
important issue in Canada is a dangerous thing. The pressure from ethnic voters who think that ethnicity is the most important issue and that the numbers of their ethnic group have to increase is an even more dangerous thing. It has already resulted in political parties (some much more than others) ignoring the ecological impact of immigration. In effect, Canada's current mass immigration policy has been turned into a massive ethnic catch-up policy in which large immigrant groups seek to become even larger and outnumber the long-term Canadian population. Giving further primacy to this goal will be an environmental and cultural disaster. In other words,
both the environmental and social consequences of Canada's mass
immigration policy have to be monitored regularly. In addition, the
monitoring has to be followed by action in the interests of the majority Canadian population, not the interests of ethnic groups. At present, no such monitoring and action exists.
As citizens of Canada, you owe regular monitoring and action to Canadians. Canada is neither a vast open ecological space nor is it an acultural hole waiting to be filled by people from other countries. No more pollyannish talk about ethnic multiculturalism. please.
Let's hear some reality.
Best wishes,
Dan Murray
Immigration Watch Canada
*Tancredo Introduces Bill to Study Environmental Impacts of Immigration.
Lawmaker Challenges Environmental Groups to Show Consistency, Support
Legislation”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (CO-06) announced his
introduction of legislation requiring the preparation of a comprehensive study pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to determine the ecological impacts of legal and illegal immigration.”Radical environmental groups rarely pass up an opportunity to criticize badly needed forest thinning projects or to characterize energy exploration proposals as threats to the environment. But one primary threat that they have remained largely silent on is the threat to our environment posed by ever-increasing levels of immigration.” Currently high levels of legal and illegal immigration contribute to rising demands for energy and water, the
loss of open space, urban sprawl. Uncontrolled illegal immigration has had serious environmental consequences for a number of sensitive areas along our borders. The completion of an environmental impact statement, as called for in the bill, will both help to better quantify the scope of these impacts, and assist policymakers in making a determination about what level of immigration is appropriate. “We require exhaustive environmental reviews when the federal government makes even the most minor of decisions like where to build a road or how many acres of brush to clear in a forest,” said Tancredo, “So why shouldn't we require that same level of analysis to help Congress determine how many immigrants to let in?” “I hope that groups like the Sierra Club – who purport to care about the environment – are willing to stand behing their principles and support my bill,” he concluded.
