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THE CHANGING CANADIAN ATTITUDES ON IMMIGRATION

It is repeatedly stated that Canada is a land of immigrants. Historically, we have welcomed immigrants because we desperately needed them to fill up our vast empty land and to supply labour, ingenuity, expertise, energy and capital to fuel our economy. Simply put, immigration has been necessary for our survival. By and large Canadians have, with a few notable exceptions, welcomed immigrants and have been grateful for their enormous contribution to our economy and culture.

However, that all seems to be changing: Canadians are becoming much more choosy as to who is admitted to this country as immigrants. A Globe and Mail / CTV poll by Strategic Council Polling Company released its findings on August 11, 2005, which found that a large number of Canadians (76%) now believe that immigrants from Europe are far more likely to make a positive contribution to Canada than those from Asia (59%), India (45%), or the Caribbean (33%).

Ironically, however, most of Canada's immigrants today come not from Europe, but from Asia. In 2004, the top 10 source countries for immigrants, were China, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, the US, Iran, Britain, Romania, Korea and France.

What is of equal significance is that Canadian enthusiasm for multiculturalism has also collapsed. This poll found that 69% of Canadians believe immigrants should be encouraged to integrate and become part of the broader society rather than maintain their ethnic identity and culture. Clearly, Canadians no longer support the "mosaic" approach to multiculturalism that has long been a defining feature of our nation's identity.

Why the Changes In Attitude Towards Immigration?

Why this striking change in attitude towards immigration and multiculturalism? Part of it may be due to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a certain degree of racial bias, the difficulty that immigrants now have to catch up to native-born Canadians with many having to rely on social assistance, and the general breakdown in society as evidenced by the wave of gang murders in recent months in Toronto which were largely carried out by minority youths. All these factors have contributed to Canadians unease about our immigration and multiculturalism policies.

It is a fact that Canadians are no longer united, but rather are largely composed of hundreds of special interest groups defined by sex, sexual orientation, culture, religion, gender, ideology, and ethnicity - all clamoring for recognition, and, of course, demanding funding as an entitlement in order to meet their special "needs." Many seem to regard "other Canadians" as competitors or even in some instances as an "enemy" to be denigrated and/or suppressed if at all possible. A united voice based on common values is no longer possible in our fragmented society.

Multiculturalism a Failed Policy

It is obvious that multiculturalism, especially, is a failed policy. Prime Minister Trudeau in 1971 instigated this policy, not so much to encourage cultural diversity in Canada, but rather as a shrewd political manoeuvre to ensure that minority groups remain firmly within the Liberal camp. Government funding of these cultural and ethnic groups has enabled the Liberal party to move large numbers of new Canadians to serve the party by attending federal nomination meetings to ensure the "right" candidate is selected and subsequently elected to Parliament. Leaders of these cultural groups are only too happy to help the Liberal party machine so that the generous grants will keep on coming their way. Although the grants are allegedly to promote and encourage culture or language - in reality they have another more insidious purpose, as outlined above for the Liberals benefit, and to line a few pockets of the ethnic wheelers and dealers to keep them happy and onside.

Immigrants and Refugees with AIDS

What many Canadians are not aware of is the number of immigrants with HIV / AIDS that are now being admitted to Canada. Canada's immigration policy requires that immigrants not be admitted if they have a health problem that will be a burden on our health care and social welfare system. However, since January 2002, well over 1,000 immigrants with HIV have been allowed into Canada. The cost to the Canadian health care system of treating an HIV patient is $150,000 over a lifetime. There are already 56,000 people in Canada infected with HIV, with about 4,000 new cases each year, so why are we taking in these particular immigrants?

The difficulty is that the immigrants with HIV cannot be denied admission since they slip in under the wire because they fall within the exempt classes, such as refugee claimants, who claim persecution because of their homosexuality or HIV in their home countries, or family class claimants, such as sponsored common law partners, and their dependent children, all of whom are admissible under the regulations, regardless of their medical condition.

We can have great compassion for those with this major health problem, but why bring them here to further compromise our already collapsing health care system?

This problem of admitting those with HIV has also been recently exacerbated by the fact that, under the immigration regulations, homosexuals may now also bring their partners into Canada as "spouses". Previously, homosexual partners did not qualify as "spouses", but were required to bring in their partners as a common-law partner, with whom they were required to have cohabited for at least one year previously. Evidence of this cohabitation if it ever existed, was not always easy to establish. Consequently, homosexual activists resented this requirement, and went to work to solve it, with the result that in May, 2004, the Immigration Department changed its policy and agreed to recognize homosexual "marriages" and their partners as "spouses" if one of the parties was a Canadian citizen.

These HIV positive immigrants require costly medical treatment which is paid for by the Canadian taxpayer. Do we need this added burden on our health care system?

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