The yawning gap between the elites and everyday Canadians on the issue immigration, that’s the topic of tonight’s Byline.
While the Harper government has been welcoming record numbers of immigrants each year, they have also begun cracking down on crooks and fraudsters that prey on our generous system.
In addition to the ongoing manhunt for people ordered out of the country for alleged ties to war crimes and crimes against humanity, they also recently announced a crackdown on people getting their citizenship through fraud.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced two weeks ago that the government would strip 1800 people of the Canadian citizenship that they obtained through fraudulent means.
This of course greatly upset the Toronto Star and others who always claim the conservatives as being anti-immigrant.
How a government that lets in more than 680,000 people last year can be anti-immigrant is beyond me but that’s what Canada did. In addition to the 280,000 permanent residents admitted to Canada there were 380,000+ admitted as a temporary foreign workers foreign students and other categories.
But in response to the move to strip citizenship from people who never should’ve gotten it in the first place but Toronto Star said:
“Kenney is pre-empting real public debate by pushing hot buttons and waving red flags”
They went on to characterize the revoking of fraudulent citizenship as a bad deal for Canada.
“By hunting down 1,800 alleged fraudsters — most of whom live abroad — and revoking their citizenship, he is spending public funds his department badly needs for basic tasks.”
The Globe and Mail described the manhunt for those already ordered deported and accused of some pretty nasty crimes as American-style and we all know that code for bad.
But what do Canadians actually think? A Leger Marketing survey conducted at the end of July gives us a glance.
Almost ¾ of Canadians 73% said that those who obtained their passport or citizenship through fraud should be kicked out right away, while 18% said let them stay while all the deportation processes work their way through the system.
As further proof that too much education may rot your brain, those with a university education are twice as likely to say we should let people stay.
Support for kicking out fraudsters goes across party lines, regardless of whether you vote conservative, liberal, NDP or Bloc the majority of Canadians support a tough line on fraudsters. Our chattering classes meanwhile continually worry that such measures are too harsh and send the wrong message.
I’m not surprised that the difference between ordinary Canadians at the chattering classes though. Last year our own pollster David collateral of Abacus data conducted a poll where he asked if Canada accepted too many immigrants too few were just the right amount. Half the country believes we are taking it too many immigrants and want the number decreased.
Shocking for many was the news that more than one third of those born outside of Canada agreed that immigration numbers should be decreased.
Such views cannot be considered radical when they are held by half the population or more. We need to have frank and open discussions about the immigration issue in this country rather than simply having the progressive elite dictate policy and tell anyone who dissents that their radical or racist.
We need to continue having frank and open discussions about immigration even if it makes the people at the top uncomfortable.
And that’s the Byline.
brian lilley - August 2nd, 2011
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