IS THE LIBERAL PARTY PROMOTING INTEGRATION OR SEPARATION IN CANADA?
- October 11, 2018
- 1:44 pm
To the eyes of many Canadians, since the Liberal Government, and specifically, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got into power, their sense of safety and security regarding peace and harmony in our society without threats from abroad (and now even from within) has been dwindling, though it has done it slowly. But what it is even more worrisome is that it seems the average Canadian is failing to notice it or react to it, especially in medium and small size cities. Now, if there are people that actually do see it, they do not dare to say anything, or they are construed as aggressive, bully, or racist.
This is something never previously openly experienced nor understood in Canada. But in European countries and in some Middle Eastern countries like Turkey, it has been happening for quite a while already. In Canada, there are politicians in other government parties that do see it coming and are starting to raise their voice loud and clear with full determination, for their true and sincere love of their country. They are starting to go against the establishment with what they think is the truth and a good analysis and reasoning at hand. Contrary to populist globalization ideas, they feel proud of their country and have developed a sense of patriotism that the Liberal government does not seem to have any more.
According to the Globe and Mail of August 17, 2018, Maxime Bernier (Quebec MP at the time) posted a series of tweets criticizing PM Trudeau’s promotion of ever more diversity, which Bernier warns will eventually segment the country into tribes, erode Canada’s identity and “destroy what has made us such a great country.” Bernier himself has stated, “The new People’s Party of Canada (founded by Bernier) fits a party that represents people who are tired of Canadian politics being hijacked by special interest groups, cartels, and lobbyists.” Bernier feels so strongly about this that he resigned from the Conservative Party because it seems that Andrew Scheer either does not see it that way, or he is afraid to talk and lose his candidacy for Prime Minister in Canada.
Canada is undergoing a difficult and delicate path. To many Canadians, the rights of the minority seem to be overpowering the rights of the majority, which are kept in check with fear of being tagged bullies or racists. Let us face it, if the average person says something against non-integrated immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, the Liberal party stamps them as racists, intolerant, unsympathetic, mean, bullies, anti-integration, and unfriendly. But this is absolutely unfounded, biased, and unfair. In fact, it is them the ones being bullies, inaccurate, and unsympathetic with their own people, whom they are supposed to protect. I guess that many soldiers, who fought and died for what made Canada a great country, are now rolling over inside their graves.
Canadians seem to be getting tired of hypocritical political correctness regarding immigration, asylum seekers, and refugees. The people of Quebec have outlined it loud and clear when they voted the Party Québécois out and the Coalition Avenir Quebec in as the majority government. François Legault, the leader of the party, “vowed to cut the number of immigrants coming into Quebec and force them to take an assessment of their knowledge both of the French language and of the values outlined in Quebec’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms” (as per Global News – Canada of Oct 01 of 2018). Québécois (and many across Canada) do not seem to like or accept that people wear conspicuous religious symbols at work and in public, regardless of their religion. Legault is also pushing to raise the age from 18 to 21 for Marijuana purchase and consumption.
All Canadian citizens have the right to freedom of expression (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom) as long as we do not bluntly insult, offend, or humiliate others. As regular citizens, our points of view and fears should be welcomed by the media and treated accordingly, with decency and encouragement.
It is to the opinion of many Canadians that PM Trudeau and the Liberal party overall, seem to have hidden agendas from the Canadian public, or even worse, they might simply be living in La-La Land, which can result dangerous to our country. I prefer the latter because this can be forgiven, but if they have a secret agenda to diminish or take away the sense of peace and security of future generation of Canadians (socially and economically), in my mind, it should be considered at the level of treason and a crime against our national security. So again, I opt to think for the latter. But time will tell, eh?
Further Analysis:
On one hand, the Liberals are promoting open door policies to refugees and asylum seekers, while un-attending a targeted or tuned-up selective immigration program above and beyond assisting migrants to cross our borders for help and “protection,” within our own territory. As Canadians, we have the obligation to help people in need, but there are various ways to do so without having to implement an open door policy and affect negatively our country’s social and economic fabric. But worst of all, the government knows very well that we are unequipped to process the paperwork in less than 4 to 5 years for the new migrants. By then, if the migrant’s petition for asylum or refugee status is rejected, and they have had two or three children born in Canada in the meantime, what is the government really going to do with all the social end economic issues this will unleash in our country? Send the children back with their parents to a country in which they were not born or be forced to accept them for humanitarian purposes against our immigration rules and regulations. According to CTV News, from about 34,000 border crossing cases, only less than 400 cases have been concluded, since all the border crossing started. According to CBC News, less than 1% of more than 28,000 irregular asylum seekers have been removed from Canada so far (as of May 07 of 2018).
An example that stunned Canada:
PM Trudeau and the Liberal Party overall promised to do a quick and full background cheque of every Syrian coming into this country with such a speed for international altruistic purposes. But was it done properly and fully? The average Canadian feels that the government failed profoundly in the process, and the first fatality has happened already. A Syrian refugee named Ibrahim Ali killed the daughter of an immigrant Chinese family. He arrived in Canada just three months before they found the thirteen-year-old girl dead in a Burnaby park in British Columbia. This happened in July of 2017. Canada gave Ibrahim the opportunity of his life in coming to Canada and that is how he repaid his new country. People like him have completely different values than Canadians and they do not seem to want to identify and hold hands with their new country. I wonder what are the real feeling and or remorse of all those Liberals pushing an open door policy without proper background investigation of refugees and asylum seekers.
Complications in our Canadian society:
The Canadian society is getting more and more complex by the minute. On one side we have the First Nations People considered a Nation within our Nation with a plethora of special treaties in their favour that infuriates other Canadians; right or wrong but they do. We also have the injustice against First Nations, which has been horrendous throughout history, and instead of fixing it to provide a long-lasting peace, the Liberal Government is paying more attention to people coming from other countries with absolutely different behaviours, habits and values than ours, but who will end up paying taxes, contrary to First Nations. And yes, let us be honest, taxes are the motor of a country, no question about it.
Then we also have Quebec, which has been acknowledged as a “distinct society”, which also infuriates other Canadians (non-Quebecois). Now, with the Liberal government, we are allowing immigrants to practice their religion freely and we are not demanding them to adapt under the law of “reciprocity” to Canadian standards and ways of being in public when they are not at home or at their place of worship, such as mosques. Some immigrants bring along their values and traditions with a clear exploitation and marginalization of women by forcing them to wear the burka or the niqab, among many other traditions. Some even absolutely repudiate the LGTBQ2 community. Those two facts, to the eyes of many Canadians, are placing those women and the LGTBQ2 community immediately at an inferior level, segregated and without proper possibilities of acceptance and or integration. On the other side, PM Trudeau says he is a strong advocate of Women’s Rights and the LGTBQ2 community. Go figure?!
All of the above is certainly confusing, contradictory and polarizing. It stimulates the lack of integration and unity. Integration and acceptance are being rejected on a daily basis and more often. As a good example, we have one of the latest issues of Maclean’s magazine for September of 2018. The front cover reads as follows:
“Hate-related incidents are on the rise, political debate is polarized and now a dramatic new poll shows Canadians are more concerned about securing the border than helping migrants. How the explosive dispute over asylum seekers turned so ugly.”
The following is not me, nor Trudeau, nor Bernier, nor Legault saying it, but facts of history: When you leave the doors open to migrants (refugees and asylum seekers) and the government fails to provide them with proper housing, education, health care, and job opportunities, then the government is creating a hidden resentment from the new arrivals against the rest of the nation, regardless if they are born and non-born Canadians.
¿ Four Specific Questions ?
- Do you think Canada is strong not in spite of our differences but because of them (as per PM Trudeau), or that our differences might make us weak and vulnerable in the future?
- Is Maxime Bernier accurate by stating, “The basic notions that tie our society together are based not on our differences, which are many, but on the commonalities that unite us.”
- Isn’t it true that our policy of multiculturalism is out-dated and doesn’t respond to the challenges faced by new immigrants to integrate and adapt? Apparently, for many Canadians, excess multiculturalism actually challenges and even offends their status as Canadians and even as North Americans.
- Without necessarily being assimilated, shouldn’t immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers integrate fully into their new generous and caring society in the spirit of reciprocity and brotherhood?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born and raised in Mexico City (D.F.) from 1958 to 1987, Rafael Carreras studied for his undergraduate degree in Economics (Mexico City) followed by a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in a joint programme between Notre Dame University (USA) and the London Graduate School of Business (England).