Unfortunately, many immigrants coming to Canada for the past twenty-five years have done so for our social benefits i.e. a free hospital, healthcare and handouts by politicians using taxpayer funds as opposed to their own.
Under these socialists and progressives, ideologies, and doctrines for state multiculturalism it has become quite obvious and apparent that various cultures have been encouraged to reside and live separate lives apart from the Canadian mainstream and even apart from one another’s cultures.
It seems a lot of immigrants or would-be refugees come to our country, with baggage for a clash of civilizations that fosters extremism and homegrown terrorists. And thus, they are not completely willing to accept our way of life, laws, and culture. They prefer to live and reside separately in their enclaves of various communities based on religious doctrines of conflict carried in their e baggage from a clash of civilizations that have fostered extremism and homegrown terrorists in their former countries.
And for far too long now as a nation we have tolerated such segregated religious and cultural communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to the values our nation was founded on and citizens fought two world wars to uphold.
I strongly believe that while it is important to respect some cultural differences, Canada and Quebec, Canada must be one national community and not just a coexistence of various different cultural communities within a nation that forces other cultures on Canadian citizens. Try that in Africa, Asia, or the Middle Eastern countries and see how that works!
Canada is a nation founded with Judeo-Christian values upon the principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.
Our immigration policy should be that if you come to Canada or Quebec then you must accept to melt into our single Canadian community. If one wishes not to accept that notion, then you cannot be welcome in either Quebec or Canada, in my humble opinion.
Canadians must not tolerate extremism or racism carried out by people be they white, black, brown, pink, yellow or a rainbow of colours. Further, we must not allow teachings of views through laws that allow for the protection of one's colour, race or religious rights to supersede the rights of others' freedom of expression or views or that one's gender beliefs or colour etc. are more important or superior to those of others.
This should be the cornerstone of Canada's and Quebec's immigration thinking and policy.
Sources
Sources
The newest figures from Statistics Canada show that Canada is one of the most multicultural countries in the world.
ReplyDeleteAbout 2 million new immigrants moved to Canada in the past decade. The vast majority of them choosing to live in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.
Nealy 20% of Canada's population (5.4 million) were born outside Canada; 70% of them do not have either English or French as a native language.
Every 4 years we add another 1 million newcomers to Canada.
You bring up a very important point: does multiculturalism mean that each ethnic/cultural group live separate lives, or do we all join in the mainstream that is Canada?
In 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made Canada the first country in the world to officially adopt Multiculturalism as a policy: a new vision to expand the Canadian sense of identity and a global understanding of all ethnic communities.
Instead of the US "melting pot", Canada had a multicultural "mosaic". Immigrants would keep their diverse language and culture and also become Canadians.
In 1996 "Canadian" was included as an ethnic origin.
Culture is about language, religion, music, art, food and beliefs.
I think we all agree that our Canadian culture today shares these values: democracy, respect for all minorities, non-violence, secular, law-abiding, bilingual English & French, Medicare as a right, equal opportunity for all, and Quebec as a home for a francophone majority.
Our Judeo-Christian heritage is a reflected in our values of a social safety net for the poor.
So the important question you raise is: what is Canadian culture in this multicultural society? And have the 2 million newcomers to Canada in the past decade adopted our culture?
I don't have a simple answer to that. Certainly the young school-age kids have quickly become Canadians as they grow through our education system. If you've ever Toronto comedian Russell Peters, you've seen the comedy of all these ethnic groups making a life here.
With globalism and dependence on foreign markets and foreign capital, I often think Canada sells its future short in order to get money today.
But I am optimistic that there are enough Canadians, like you, who care about these common values to pass them onto the next generation, and all newcomers to our country.