October 12, 2005: Calls For Segregated Black Schools In The Greater Toronto Area And Another For More Financial Attention To GTA Problems Are More Signs That High Immigration Is Not Working
PRESS RELEASE
A call from 22 Greater Toronto Area Black groups to establish segregated black schools and an Ontario report stating that the GTA will be in need of serious attention are two more signs that current high immigration policies are not working, says Immigration Watch Canada.
A Toronto Star report states that the organization of 22 Black groups, which calls itself the Coalition of African Canadians, cites the following reasons for calling for major changes to the staus quo::
(1) Out of more than 60 homicides in the GTA this year, a record 41 have involved a firearm. Black community leaders say that 90% of the homicides have involved blacks.
(2) Large numbers of black youths have dropped out or been expelled from schools.
(3) Blacks believe they are one of the most underserviced, underemployed, poverty-stricken, and racially-victimized groups in the GTA.
(4) Society is already segregated for certain groups such as aboriginals and francophones who have been granted their own schools and services.
The coalition is calling for the following special measures:
(1) A special government office, similar to one established in Nova Scotia last year, to oversee African-Canadian affairs.
(2) A court diversion programme for blacks who commit minor offences.
(3) An economic development agency for blacks.
(4) A skills training and employment access programme focused on blacks.
(5) Race-based statistics to be kept by police.
(6) Repeal of the zero-tolerance school discipline policy, which the Ontario Human Rights Commission is investigating for accusations that it deals more harshly with blacks.
(7) A federal-provincial and cross-border task force to adress trafficking in weapons and drugs.
(8) An independent civilian review of police misconduct.
(9) A halt to a large youth detention facility planned for Brampton which it calls a “superjail”.
(10) A black-focussed school and a vibrant African-Canadian cultural centre.
Immigration Watch Canada cautions against the establishment of racially-segregated schools. It is true that Canada has separate schools for religious groups. It is also true that it has separate schools for aboriginals on reserves, but the latter racially-based schools are virtually unavoidable because many reserves are so geographically isolated. Separate, racially-based schools may fit into a growing pattern of racial division that federal programmes such as multiculturalism and “Equity Employment For Visible Minorities” have encouraged and established, but fitting into this federal pattern does not make them wise, nor does it have them contribute to Canadian unity.
Meanwhile, a 113 page Ontario government study, Toward 2025, predicts that the Greater Toronto area will need even more attention than that called for by the Coalition of African Canadians. It states that, by 2025, Ontario's population will grow by 3.1 million (to a total of 15.7 million) and that immigration will be the primary factor in the increase over the next 20 years. Most of that 3.1 million increase will come in the GTA whose population will grow from 5.2 million to 7.7 million by 2025. Most immigrants to Ontario and to Canada settle there.
A Toronto Star report states that the Ontario government has already listed a number of concerns:
(1) A need for more federal re-settlement money for immigrants who come to Ontario.
(2) A much more sophosticated GTA transportation system to handle the larger population.
(3) Growth in the 65+ age group:19.4% of Ontarians will be older than 65 in 2025 compared with 12.9% now.
(4) Growth of the core working age population of people aged 15 to 64 is projected to slow from 1.6% in 2005-2006 to just 0.2% in 2024-2025.
IWC points out that governments that rely on immigration to deal with a larger number of older people in a society have to understand that they are playing with fire. Rather than merely repeat the questionable claims of immigration ministers, the Ontario government should take note of the federal research which also made projections to the year 2025 and of U.N. research on the same matter. Both advised against using immigration to deal with the issue of an increased number of 65+ year-olds in a population. Here are some of their findings:
(1) Immigrants who are on average younger than Canadians can postpone the day when Canada will have a significant number of its population in the 65+ age bracket.
(2) However, the key word is “postpone”. Immigrants also grow old, so immigration only delays the inevitable. It is not the best or most sensible way to deal with getting older.
(3) Most importantly, immigration adds to the total population, particularly when the federal government is thinking of a 40% increase in current immigration levels to the 320,00+ per year range. In other words, the longer that high immigration levels are used as a tool, the larger the total population becomes and the larger the number of 65+ people becomes. Therefore, the larger the subsequent number of immigrants to offset the 65+ syndrome has to become. This turns into a perpetual cycle.
(4) Equally important, if more immigrants who are brought in, the larger total population means greater costs for new infrastructure needed to deal with the increase in population.
(5) Also, the larger the total population becomes as a result of using immigration, the larger and more negative the environmental impact becomes. And the more unliveable the area becomes.
(6) Finally, numbers of immigrants not only have an environmental and economic impact but also make a big cultural difference. As the federal study pointed out, the greater the numbers of people whose culture is different from that of the host population, the more unacceptable immigration becomes as a method of dealing with the issue of a larger number of 65+ people in the population.
Once again, Imigration Watch Canada points out that federal research showed that using incentives to increase Canada's birth rate, and making better use of Canada's female work force and its 45+ unemployed male workforce were mathematically, culturally and morally superior methods of dealing with a larger number of 65+ year-olds in Canada's population.
By now, the Ontario government should have realized that there are extremely negative environmental, economic and cultural consequences to moving large numbers of people into the Greater Toronto Area. These problems have already surfaced. Ontario has already paid a price and it will soon see that the price will rise significantly if it does not speak out against high immigration levels. It has a constitutional right and moral duty to do so. The same can be said for other provinces. In fact, no province (or municipal government for that matter) can continue to remain silent on the grounds that immigration is a federal matter. To do so is to approve of high immigration and to be part of the problem.
END OF PRESS RELEASE
