Sunday, May 10, 2015

Benefiting the Few: The Inequitable World of Canadian Multicultural Policy

Benefiting the Few: The Inequitable World of Canadian Multicultural Policy



Within the realm of Canadian government policy, an expectation exists that legislation will be of benefit to the people of our country. While it is unreasonable to expect every piece of legislation to be a benefit to each and every citizen, it is reasonable to believe the majority, or at least a significant segment of our population, will ultimately benefit. 

Canada’s Multicultural Act of 1988 has proven itself to be an exception. Certainly, segments of society are positively affected — new arrivals to our country, our largest ethnic communities, as well as some of our political and business leaders. 

Those who do not benefit from multicultural policy, however, far outnumber the beneficiaries. In fact, it is reasonable to say this “silent majority” has been adversely affected by official multicultural policy. 

How could this be? Since the time of multiculturalism’s entrenchment in our constitution in 1988, Canadians have been told the policy has been a benefit to all. During this period, our government has consistently promoted Canadian “diversity” as a symbol of equality for all communities within our multi-ethnic society. 

This is a nice idea. The only problem is, it never happened. Somewhere along the line, the original intention of multicultural policy was lost. Actually, there is another problem — the Canadian public are unaware this has occurred. 

The ramifications of the policy are manifold. Beyond the statute itself, the ideology surrounding the policy has permeated every aspect of Canadian society. Multicultural ideology has sunk deep into the pores of our culture, to the degree that to even question the policy is viewed as an act of subversion.
Very few countries of the world have constitutional multiculturalism. In fact, there are only two — Canada and Australia. In Canada, the policy has contributed to what can best be described as a “cultural inversion”. It is not unemployed Canadians who matter, but rather temporary foreign workers. It is not those who have paid taxes for decades who deserve priority, but rather new arrivals, and their potential votes. Cultural recognition and pride among “generational” Canadians — those of us who are second and third generation(and beyond) is discouraged, while the cultures of our largest ethnic communities are funded by the tens of millions, through our tax dollars. 

What gives? How did a democratic nation like Canada arrive at such a curious social inversion? Exactly whom are the benefactors? Certainly not working Canadians. Millions of government dollars are annually spent on job creation for new immigrants. In the low-skill sector, companies prefer to hire foreign workers. Due to Canada’s annual immigration quota being at an all-time high, competition for high-skill employment is also at an all-time high. Unemployed Canadians are not benefiting. In Toronto, the youth unemployment rate is over 18%. How could the arrival of hundreds of thousands of young temporary foreign workers be of benefit to these Canadians? 

If not Canadian workers or the unemployed, perhaps we should try a completely different category. How about the faithful among our population? The majority of Canadians come from a Christian background. Do these folks benefit from multiculturalism? Not a chance. In fact, multicultural policy has led to a major setback for citizens from a Christian heritage. Examples are many — the banning of the Lord’s Prayer from the public school system, the erosion of the religious component of Christmas, to such a degree that it is now politically incorrect to wish your neighbour a Merry Christmas. One must be very careful — Happy Holidays only. 

In the meantime, Muslim prayers are offered in dozens of public schools across the country. Niqab-wearing bus drivers are permissible, regardless of the fact that head coverings impair a driver’s vision, thereby compromising the safety of our children. Let’s not worry about whether Junior makes it home alive, it is much more important that a woman is allowed to import her religious customs into our country. 

Speaking of religion, it is interesting to note that within Canada’s banking industry, multiculturalism, or “diversity” as bank executives like to call it, has become a belief system unto itself. In the competitive world of bank employment, priority often goes to workers of colour. The idea that employees are hired based on whether or not they are the best candidate for the job is just so “20th century”. Banks today hire people based on their ethnicity, as in the colour of their skin. What about customer service within our banking industry? It’s excellent — if you speak Chinese. BMO, formerly Bank of Montreal, feature bi-lingual bank machines throughout our nation; bilingual, as in English and Chinese. 

How about a benefit for elderly Canadians? Surely our elderly, after paying taxes to the government for decades, would benefit from multicultural policy? Nothing doing, Grandma. Decades of mass immigration, in particular through the family reunification plan, have transferred billions to elderly immigrant parents and grandparents in the form of social services. How about Canadian home owners? Nope, both the Toronto and Vancouver real estate markets have gone through the roof due largely to foreign and new-arrival home purchases. As a result, home affordability for low and middle income Canadians in our urban centres is becoming a thing of the past. 
So who does benefit from multicultural policy and its first cousin, mass immigration? Presumably the immigrants, although in reality, this is more of a mixed bag than one would imagine. How about the people who sell houses to our new arrivals? Now we are on to something. Our real estate industry, developers and realtors — are in the pink. Or more accurately, the green.These folks do in fact benefit, by selling our country to Asia and the Middle East, and pocketing the cash. Are folks aware of the closely-knit relationship between government, multicultural organizations and our real estate industry? Not to worry — neither is anyone else, and this is exactly how these power players want it to be. 

In Vancouver, the real estate executives are in bed with the Multicult leaders. The Multicult leaders are in bed with the provincial government. The provincial government is in bed with the municipal government. The municipal government is in bed with an Asian pop star — literally! Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson just happens to be the boyfriend of under-fed Chinese pop star Wanting Qu. 

The fact that her mother has been convicted of fraud back in China should be of no concern. After all, Ms. Wanting helped Mayor Robertson gain 88,000 followers from China on his Twitter page. Yes, marketing to foreigners is also a priority for our mayor. 

Immigration lawyers, as well as consultants, realtors, and tax specialists are making a very comfortable living from immigration-related business in Canada. Why wouldn’t they, when Canada has the highest per-capita immigration levels in the world? 

Over in Multicult-land, business is also booming. Our legal industry, courts and judges are busy ensuring foreign criminals are not deported back to their homelands. Civil Liberties organizations are working hard to defend Muslim women who wish to hide their identity during their citizenship ceremony. The holy grail for civil libertarians, Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is of great assistance — for the minority of people who are using it to impose their belief systems upon the majority. 

Lawyers, judges, realtors, consultants, ethnocentric “identity” politicians, foreign students, and foreign workers comprise perhaps 5% of our population at best. New migrants to Canada certainly boost the percentage, however even with the inclusion of our annual immigrant intake, Canadian-born citizens are a majority in Canada by a wide margin. 

All the while, our government has promoted multicultural and immigration policy as a panacea for our nation. This we have heard about for decades. What we have not heard about is that this same government has yet to produce a study which verifies a net economic benefit from immigration to Canada. 

A succession of ruling federal governments, both Liberal and Conservative, implemented immigration and multicultural policy without public consent. Statistics Canada tell us white Canadians will be a minority in Toronto and Vancouver within sixteen years. Considering these circumstances, the time has arrived for the Canadian people to tell our government whether or not they are in favour of the societal transformation our country is experiencing at present. It is time for a national referendum on Canada’s multicultural and immigration policies. Anything short of this is evidence of an erosion of the democratic principals our nation was founded upon.

Brad Salzberg
May 2015

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