Views From Canadians On : Boat People, Icelanders Looking For Jobs, The Unregulated Temporary Foreign Worker Programme, UK Parties on Immigration
1. THE 76 BOAT PEOPLE HAVE NOT LIVED IN SRI LANKA FOR A LONG TIME?
FROM M.B. : I was listening to a CBC interview with an immigration lawyer who said he is representing some of the 76 boat people who arrived in Victoria in mid-October. The lawyer said that a significant number of the boat people had not lived in Sri Lanka for a long time. If that is so, the interviewer missed a very important point in the current debate over these 76 people. If the 76 came from other countries, the interviewer should have asked the lawyer what those countries were. But he did not ask this crucial question.
If the lawyer is correct, this group reminds me of the 154 Sri Lankans who arrived in Newfoundland in 1986. Those people had not been living in Sri Lanka, but in Germany. When they got to Newfoundland, and were questioned, they lied to Canadian authorities. They claimed that they had come directly from Sri Lanka. In reality, they were asylum shoppers. All or most had been granted refugee status in Germany and had been living there for a few years. They had heard that Canada had a more generous package of benefits than Germany was offering, so they decided to come here. They were in no danger in Germany and should have been quickly sent back.
If many of the latest 76 were living in safe other places, even safe areas within Sri Lanka, there's probably no excuse for not returning them to those places. Let's look very suspiciously at our immigration industry. We know they will tell us the standard excuse that the 76 recent boat people will be in grave danger if they are returned to the places they came from. To coin a phrase for the country, “700,000 times bitten, finally shy”.
2. QUALIFIED MANITOBANS AND OTHER CANADIANS HAVE PRIORITY OVER QUALIFIED ICELANDERS FOR MANITOBA JOBS
FROM D.G.: Manitoba's immigration minister, Nancy Allan, has been trying since April, 2009 to bring skilled Icelanders to Manitoba to work. Appealing to sentimentality, she's been reminding Manitobans that many Icelanders came to Manitoba around 1875.
To put pressure on the federal government, she's been saying that the feds are delaying her efforts to bring the Icelanders to Manitoba. According to her, the federal government has said that the Manitoba jobs are open to the Icelanders only if nobody in Manitoba can be found for the jobs. Our federal government should also tell Ms. Allan that there may very well be many other Canadians who are qualified for the Manitoba jobs. She and many other politicians who like to tell Canadians how generous they are to immigrants need to be given a strong message : other Canadians have a much stronger reason to be considered for those jobs than people from another country.
3. CANADA CAN HELP OTHER COUNTRIES, BUT IT CAN'T SAVE THE WORLD
FROM C.I.L. : Re the arrival of the 76 boat people: Clearly, Canada's refugee and immigration laws need to be seriously beefed up to create deterrents to would-be human smugglers and back-door refugee claimants who operate in full knowledge that Canada is a soft target.
Canada cannot save the world. Our situation is like that of a life boat that becomes overloaded and sinks itself. The additional burden placed on the Canadian economy and health care system by hundreds of thousands of new people, not to mention the years of benefits paid to sustain refugees, need to be reviewed. Many Canadians are out of work and our own sick are waiting for medical services. Charity begins at home. Canada can help genuine refugees, but the best way to help disadvantaged people in other countries is to help bring stability and good government to those countries so they can prosper and take care of themselves.
Canada should not give in to pressure from the shrill voices of another growing community of immigrants that has been founded on fraudulent claims and the deceit of this country's immigration industry.
4. CANADA'S TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS' PROGRAMME INVOLVES MUCH MORE THAN FARM WORKERS
FROM M.W. : Several weeks back, the “business commentator” on the local CBC morning show discussed Temporary Foreign Workers. He took the opportunity to slag “lazy” Canadians, who, in his view, would rather collect Employment Insurance than move to Leamington (a farming area), live in bunkhouses and work 60 hours/week for minimum wage and no benefits.
In my opinion. he kind of missed the point. Agricultural workers represent only 10% of the 260,000 temporary workers now. What is the justification for the other 200,000+ or so temporary foreign workers in Canada now? A Toronto Star article tells us the temporary workers are employed in clerical and manual jobs, but what exactly are they doing and where exactly are they working?. What effect are they having on wages? Are Canadians being displaced from jobs? This is a very important issue. Nobody seems to be asking these questions…. And more and more temporary foreign workers arrive every year.
5. WHY CAN'T CANADA HAVE A FRANK REVELATION FROM OUR MEDIA OF WHAT MASS IMMIGRATION IS DOING TO US?
FROM W.R. : Canadians should watch October 22's edition of a BBC programme called “Question Time”. It consisted of a panel from each of Britain's political parties, including the British National Party (BNP). After expected hysterics from some audience members who were there to challenge the BNP, and ongoing bullying of the BNP leader, a productive debate about immigration ensued, in my opinion. If only we in Canada could talk about the immigration issue !!
One thing did bother me. What is going on when even the British, in that programme and in some circles of debate, are mocked for calling themselves an established culture or people? It's similar to what often goes on in Canadian cities where only the history and cultures of newcomers are ever talked about and treated as important while the French, English, Scots, Irish and other early settlers are ignored. It is strange how people around the world, as a result of one big brain wash, give credence and voice only to those cultures that are non-European.
(See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptit8d6NSdo&feature=related (PART 1 OF BBC QUESTION TIME–October 22, 2009)
