Canada is a nation of immigrants. Some, of us, are Johnny-come-lately and some of us, Aboriginal Canadians, have been here for thousands of years. All of us, skilled, unskilled, entrepreneurs, refugees from oppression and those seeking a better life are the fabric of Canadian society. Whether we are black, white, brown or other racial shades, we are Canadian. Whether our parents or ancestors came from the British Isles, Africa, Europe, South America, South Asia, China or a hundred other places in the world, we are Canadian. We came for opportunity. We came for peace. We came for security of person. We came for freedom from oppressive regimes and we came for our children. Sometimes it is easy to forget that we are émigrés twice removed and that other folks around the world want the same break that our forefathers and mothers got when they emigrated here. There are about 900,000 people waiting to come here and their chances just got slimmer with the introduction of and passing of changes to the immigration act that allows the Minister of Immigration to limit the number of immigration applications, deny admission to applicants already approved and centralize the decision of what category of applicants eligible to immigrate to Canada in the Minister’s office. What this means is that the government, not the Parliament, of Canada can choose who can come to Canada. Jim Flaherty, the Minister of Finance, sums up the Harper government’s position when he calls the changes, “modernizing the immigration system.” He says that the Harper government wants a “just-in-time competitive immigration system which will quickly process skilled immigrants who can make an immediate contribution to the economy.” Add to that, a new policy, that would test potential immigrant’s ability to speak English or French through an oral or written test. The Minister of Immigration can now decide that only skilled persons or investors/entrepreneurial persons are suitable as immigrants to Canada. At the present time, about 60 per cent of the immigrants to Canada are represented by those categories. If the minister decides we need more of the same, the other categories such as family class or unskilled worker or refugee may have to wait. There are some folks who see this change in immigration policy as fully justifiable and oppose the numbers of immigrants coming through the doors. Some really believe that we have enough people in this country and bringing in more people exacerbates the unemployment problem in the big cities in Ontario. Some want to forget about uniting families. All of these folks are ‘drawbridge people’. I am here and so is my family draw-up the bridge and defend against anyone else coming to this country. If the Harper government thinks this is a trouble-free sell they are the victims of their own political hubris since the very people they seek to keep out are the people who have relatives here and are voters. Concentrating that policy in the hands of the Minister of Immigration which in effect puts it in the hands of the Prime Minister clearly says to the people of Canada that power is more important than government. Immigration policy shouldn’t reside in the Prime Minister’s office but should be debated in the House of Commons, the representatives of the people of Canada. It shouldn’t be tied to C-50, the budget bill, as a cowardly act of subterfuge, but put to the people of Canada through public consultation. There are lots of things to consider in changing the immigration policy. If Commons committees can investigate former prime ministers and their cronies for conflicts of interests, why can’t the government and the Parliament institute a consultation with the Canadian public on the future of this country? Why should Canadians be faced with Harper’s, “my way or the highway” approach to changes in public policy? Immigration policy does warrant serious consideration by all of us, not just the folks who want to close the doors to the “tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the homeless and the tempest tossed.” If we let the government get away with this caper, then we betray the Canadian heritage bought and paid for by the thousands of immigrants to this country.
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