Number 104. June, 1998

Hang "Immigration"

Immigration and a much-coveted ticket to someplace like Canada is the holy grail for much of the Third World. In a small village, just one successful refugee or immigrant claim can clear the decks for everyone else. So sacred a trust is not to be taken lightly - nor is it. In Kasanga village, (in the Rukwa region of Tanzania's remote southwest) "a dog sentenced to death for having an offensive name has been executed and its owner got a suspended six month sentence." (Toronto Sun, March 4, 1998) "Prosecutors told the court last month that the owner, John Kachela, had mischievously given the dog the name of a highly respected government department and compounded the crime by going to the department on a daily basis and boasting of its name." (Reuters, March 9, 1998) The dog's name was "Immigration". There are several versions of the dog's demise, depending on the source: the animal was variously shot by police, hanged, or bludgeoned to death by the owner. "'It has become a disgrace to the region and the nation,' the Daily Mail quoted senior regional officials as saying. 'It has become of international interest with people asking questions from as far away as Britain and South Africa.'" (Reuters, March 10, 1998)

Everything's Coming Up Roma

As reported last month, Canada granted asylum to the first family of 20 Gypsies, based on "their fear of persecution on the ground of race". Now that it's home, "Toronto's Romani community has set up a group to fight ethnic stereotyping." (Toronto Sun, May 21, 1998) Right at the centre of refugee claims as always, "Lawyer George Kubes said the word has spread among Gypsies in Europe that Canada is the place to be. ... 'Canada is seen abroad as accepting all the Romas.' ... Federal immigration officials are keeping a close eye on a steady stream of Hungarian Gypsies arriving here to file refugee claims. ...He said the Hungarian and Romanian Gypsies, like their Czech counterparts, claim they're persecuted in their homelands by the government and skinheads." (Toronto Sun, May 25, 1998) Meanwhile, back in their various grindingly oppressive homelands: Czech President Vaclav Havel, has pardoned two Roma men charged with roughing up far-right leader, Miroslav Sladek. In Romania, the education minister, "Andrei Marga said he 'would introduce a mechanism of positive discrimination favouring Roma in state education ... in schools, professional schools and higher education institutes." (AP, April 18, 1998) It's the same mindless persecution where "Two Czech cities have decided to fence in what they call 'problematic' public housing residents, mainly Gypsies, who officials say ruin the calm, orderly life of their neighbours. ... A neighbour ... showed a reporter a videotape he had made of the Maticni housing project in March. The yard and the street were littered with trash and a pile of garbage about a meter high and several meters long lay next to an abandoned apartment block. The street's Romany residents blame the city for their problems. ... Asked if fencing the Gypsies into what is effectively a ghetto might be a violation of their civil rights, [the Mayor] erupted in anger. 'Rights? Are you serious? What civil rights?' he said. 'They can vote, but they don't. They can work, but they don't. They can pay rent, but they don't.'" (International Herald Tribune, May 25, 1998)

The Face of Canada is Changing, Census Finds

Statscan has confirmed what most Canadians have already realized -- massive immigration since 1965, heavily favouring non-traditional or Third World sources, is changing the face of Canada. This trend, never approved by Canadians, has nearly doubled the number of Third World people here in a decade from 6.3 per cent of the population in 1986 to 11.2 per cent in 1996. Should this rate continue (the Third World proportion doubling every decade) , Canada could be 50 per cent non-White by 2020! The Statscan report 1996 Census: Ethnic Origin, Visible Minorities, released February 17, 1998 reports: "Since the 1970s, sources of immigration to Canada have changed greatly, with many more immigrants coming from non-European countries. Over half the immigrant population who arrived since the 1970s, and three-quarters of those who came in the 1990s, are members of a visible minority group."

In 1996, Canada was home to 3.2 million persons who identified themselves as members of a visible minority. They represented 11.2% of the total population in Canada, up from 9.4% in 1991 and 6.3% in 1986. The Census showed that about three out of every 10 individuals who identified as a visible minority were born in Canada, and the rest were immigrants. While Ontario and British Columbia contained half of Canada's total population, they accounted for almost three-quarters of the visible minority population. The proportion of visible minorities varied considerably from less than 1% of the population of Newfoundland to highs of 18% in British Columbia, and 16% in Ontario. The proportion was below the national average of 11% in all of the other provinces and territories.

A total of 860,000 individuals identified themselves as Chinese in the 1996 Census, the largest visible minority population. They accounted for 3% of Canada's total population. The next largest group was 671,000 South Asians, who comprised 2.4% of Canada's population, , and 574,000 Blacks, representing 2%. Together, Chinese, South Asians and Blacks represented two-thirds of the visible minority population in Canada. The remaining one-third of the visible minority population, about 1.1 million people, included Filipinos, Southeast Asians, Latin Americans, Japanese, Koreans, Arabs and West Asians. Almost all visible minorities lived in large urban centres Consistent with immigrant settlement patterns, almost all visible minorities, about 94%, lived in a census metropolitan area in 1996, compared with 62% of the total population. Also, they tended to be concentrated in a small number of census metropolitan areas. Seven out of every 10 visible minority persons in Canada lived in just three census metropolitan areas: Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

This was more than twice the proportion of Canada's population who resided in these areas (33%). Toronto was home to 42% of the total visible minority population in Canada, the largest proportion of any census metropolitan area, while 18% lived in Vancouver and 13% in Montreal. Visible minorities made up a much higher share of the total population of Toronto (32%) and Vancouver (31%) than they did in Montreal (12%). Four other urban areas also had a relatively high share: Calgary (16%), Edmonton (14%), Ottawa-Hull (12%) and Winnipeg (11%). About 1.7 million individuals identified themselves as members of a visible minority in Ontario, 16% of the province's total population. Ontario had more than half (53%) of Canada's visible minority population but only 37% of the national population. There were 1.3 million members of the visible minority population in the census metropolitan area of Toronto, which represented 42% of visible minorities in Canada. In comparison, 15% of Canada's total population resided in Toronto. Four out of five members of the visible minority population in Ontario lived in Toronto. This was twice Toronto's share of the province's total population. About one-quarter of visible minorities in Toronto were Chinese, a further one-quarter were South Asian and one-fifth were Black. Except for Arab/West Asians and Japanese, the largest number of each of the visible minority groups lived in Toronto. Almost half the South Asian and Black population of Canada lived in Toronto, along with about two-fifths of Canada's Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos.

In 1996, British Columbia had the second largest visible minority population after Ontario. There were 661,000 persons in British Columbia who were members of a visible minority group. These individuals accounted for 18% of British Columbia's total population, the highest proportion of any province. A total of 565,000 individuals in Vancouver identified themselves as members of a visible minority, 18% of the Canadian total. About 85% of British Columbia's visible minority population lived in Vancouver, compared with just under half of the province's total population.Vancouver has experienced high levels of Asian immigration in recent years. Asians comprised about nine out of 10 members of Vancouver's visible minority population. Chinese formed the largest group in Vancouver, accounting for half of the total. South Asians were the second largest group, forming one-fifth of the visible minority population in Vancouver. Vancouver was also home to the largest community of Japanese in Canada, as well as the second highest numbers of Chinese, South Asians, Filipinos and Koreans. Overall, 32% of the Chinese and Japanese in Canada lived in Vancouver, as did 26% of Koreans Quebec's visible minority population in 1996 was 434,000, the third largest total after Ontario and British Columbia.

They represented 6% of Quebec's population. A total of 401,000 individuals identified themselves as members of a visible minority in Montreal in 1996, representing 92% of the province's visible minority population. In contrast, Montreal had less than half (47%) of the total population of Quebec. Montreal had sizeable communities among several visible minority groups. Blacks were Montreal's largest such group, accounting for 30% of the visible minority population. Arab/West Asians, who represented 18% of Montreal's visible minority population, constituted its second largest group as well as Canada's largest Arab/West Asian community. About 30% of the nation's Arab/West Asian population and 21% of the Black population lived in Montreal, which was also home to the second largest Latin American and Southeast Asian communities. About 26% of Latin Americans and 22% of Southeast Asians lived in Montreal.

Metropolitan areas in other regions of Canada also had substantial visible minority populations. In Alberta, they represented 16% of Calgary's population, and 14% of Edmonton's. The profile of the groups in these two urban areas was similar. Chinese and South Asians were the largest visible minority groups in both, Chinese comprising just over one-third of their visible minority population, and South Asians one-fifth. Members of visible minorities made up 12% of the total population in the census metropolitan area of Ottawa-Hull. Blacks were the largest group, comprising 27% of the visible minority population. Arab/West Asians, Chinese and South Asians also made up a large share of the visible minority population in Ottawa-Hull. In Winnipeg, visible minorities comprised 11% of the total population. Filipinos, the main group, constituted over one-third (35%) of all the visible minority population in Winnipeg. This was the third largest Filipino community in Canada after Toronto and Vancouver. In Halifax, visible minorities represented 7% of the population.

Although the visible minority population in Halifax was not as large as that of other census metropolitan areas, Halifax was home to a sizeable Black community. Blacks comprised over half (54%) of the visible minority population in Halifax. The second largest group in Halifax consisted of Arab/West Asians, who formed 14% of the city's visible minority population. Over two-thirds (68%) of Canada's visible minority population were immigrants in 1996, while 29% were born in Canada. The remainder were non-permanent residents, that is people from another country who live in Canada and have work, student or minister's permits, or persons claiming refugee status. Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec had the highest share of immigrants among Canada's visible minority population, about 70%. Just under one-quarter (24%) of the total visible minority population in Canada were recent immigrants. The proportion of recent immigrants among the visible minority population was particularly high in British Columbia (27%) and Ontario (25%) as a result of high immigration levels in the 1990s. (The term "recent immigrants" refers to those who arrived in Canada between 1991 and 1996.) The proportion of the Canadian-born visible minority population varied widely from group to group, in large measure a reflection of historical immigration patterns. About 65% of the Japanese were born in Canada, the highest proportion among the visible minority groups, followed by 42% of Blacks and 29% of South Asians. Among the remaining visible minority groups, about one-fourth were born in Canada."

Filipino Slasher Ordered Deported

Here's one we won! "A Hispanic gang member who stabbed a rival in a schoolyard fight has been ordered deported from Canada to his native Philippines. Juan Balmores Pablo, 21, was ordered ejected by an Immigration and Refugee Board yesterday because of his 1996 conviction of aggravated assault. He was jailed 131/2 months. Pablo came to Canada in 1994 and broke the law within two years, the board said. Court heard he was a member of the Lafamilia gang, which was feuding with a rival group, the Latino Browns. In June 1995, police said, a car carrying 12 Lafamilia members drove to Cardinal Newman School on Kingston Rd. in search of a rival gang member. Police testified the Lafamilia gang pounced on the 20-year-old victim and beat him with bars and clubs. He was also stabbed and slashed six times on his head and upper torso. Several gang members were arrested five hours later outside a movie theatre. Pablo admitted to the immigration board that he had stabbed the man twice with a six-inch knife. 'Mr. Pablo's offence was serious' and he continues to pose a risk in Canada, the Immigration and Refugee Board decided." (Toronto Sun, May 8, 1998)

Israel Ships Us Spies & Hijackers as "Refugees"

Solicitor General, Andy Scott says "Law enforcement agencies are about to crack down on Canadian organizations that are fronts for foreign terrorists. ... Scott recently tabled an intelligence report that concluded Canada has become a haven for every known terrorist group in the world. Most terrorists not only have a presence in Canada but they use Canada to raise funds as well as providing logistical support and safe havens, he said. ... He won't tolerate terrorist groups masquerading as charitable or humanitarian agencies." (Toronto Sun, May 25, 1998) "We may be about to grant political asylum to at least eight 'refugees' now in an Israeli jail, including two Iranians, one of them a hijacker, four suspected Iraqi spies and two Syrian defectors. ... According to the lawyer for the Iraqis, 'No other country would accept them.'" (Toronto Sun, May 21, 1998) Was this arrangement by any chance, brokered by hard-nosed Canadian negotiators last year? "Look, this isn't the first time you've used our passports for these nefarious purposes. The dignity of the Canadian people cannot be restored with less than eight expellees." (Or was that Cuba?) Premier Mike Harris suggested that, rather than simply shipping criminals to Canada, "Each country should cope with its own problems ... 'We seem to have a disproportionate share of those who are problems. And I think it's time the government took a little more balanced look at that,' he said." (Toronto Sun, May 21, 1998) Canadians have long-suspected that we are get "remittance men" (of course, we also "get" to pay their remittance). "The father of a Sri Lankan who tried to rape a seven-year-old girl was told by a judge to find his son a bride without delay, a report said yesterday. 'Find a partner for your son soon, or send him abroad. He will not get off lightly if he does this again,' the Sinhala-language Divaina newspaper quoted magistrate Ranasinghe as saying." (South China Morning Post, February 14, 1998)

Immigrant Investor Scamsters Charged

"RCMP laid more than 100 charges Tuesday against a Taiwanese fund promoter, a Hong Kong businessman and a now-defunct Calgary recycling company after uncovering alleged violations with a $ 7-million immigrant investment fund. ... RCMP allege [Larry] Lee, [Charles] Lam and Toby Manufacturing Inc. took part in an elaborate kick-back scheme over a six-year period, funnelling millions of dollars back to Taiwan through several other Calgary-based companies owned by Lam and his family and leaving only a small percentage in the fund. Lee, 47, is living in Taiwan while Lam, 69, is believed to be in Hong Kong. ... None of the fund's 25 foreign investors, who gained Canadian visas by investing $250,000 in the Toby fund, will face charges, said RCMP Const. George Koszegi. [Strangely] ... it is not known how many have taken up permanent residency in Canada." (Canadian Press, May 13, 1998)

Aren't You Glad You Use Dial? Don't You Wish Everybody Did?

The decision to dump the Dial Soap jingle offers new insights for the cultural anthropologist. The company decided the slogan "wasn't relevant any longer because of what is going on inside the soap users heads." (Wall Street Journal, January 20, 1998) DDB Needham ad executive, Joe Belmonte says, it's no longer 'I've got to make myself presentable to you,' but rather, 'I've got to wash you off of me'. The desire to protect ourselves from the germs of the outside world has almost certainly contributed to the market share given over to liquid soaps and portable antibacterials like 'Purell'. It's all very well for you to worry about germs, the real question is: Does the rest of the world have a mother like yours? According to the unfortunately named Compliance Control Center, they don't. These manufacturers of automated, verifiable handwashing gizmos have studied handwashing like obsessive-compulsives, and their research can best be described as -- sickening. Handwashing 'compliance' is so minimal among food handlers that one early study unhelpfully concluded: "The hands of food handlers should be kept clean and that they should avoid contact with food wherever possible." (The numbers and types of bacteria found on the hands of food handlers, Horwood, M.P...., and Minch, V.A., 1951. Food Res. 16: 133-136)

In (ugh) another, "60% of food service personnel in one study were reported to not wash their hands after using the toilet." (Changing poor hand washing habits - A continuing challenge for Sanitarians. Emery, H. C. 1990. Dairy Food Environ. Sanitation 10(1): 8-9) The Compliance Control people are intimately familiar with human frailty; consequently, their workplace evaluations have evolved a sneaky methodology. During the first stage of scrutiny, the handwashing area is covertly observed and the soap distributor is interviewed to determine actual handwashing 'compliance'. "The Assessment Period observations showed an average of less than one handwash per day per employee." (Compliance Control) Once the pending study is announced, handwashing increases dramatically, by an average rate of 214%. However, when employees realize they are being actively observed, handwashing activity goes through the roof, by an average 890%. (This is the 'Hawthorne effect', after a study at Western Electric which found productivity was enhanced by the simple expedient of observing employees). If all goes well, Compliance Control will sell the client another handwashing system (one version actually incorporates alarms to remind 'non-compliant' employees that it is time to wash their hands).

"About 80% of common infections are spread directly by hands and not through the air. According to a recent poll of 2,000 Canadians, however, the perception is the opposite -- almost half of those surveyed thought that germs are spread through the air (like sneezing)." (Toronto Sun, February 27, 1998)

The advantages of hygienic standards in hospitals and restaurants are generally understood and well documented. Nevertheless, "infection is the most common immediate cause of death in nursing home patients and the leading cause of patient hospitalization." (American Journal of Infection Control, June/August 1991). Equally, "improper or infrequent handwashing continues to be a major factor in the spread of disease in daycare." (Infectious Diseases in Children, Volume 4, July 1991) Covert observation of neglectful nannies has become a minor boom industry, but if child-minders and health care workers should happen to be hepatitis carriers, the most vulnerable members of our society (children, the elderly, the infirm) might well pray for someone even less attentive. Hepatitis A is a highly contagious virus "shed in the stool (feces) of infected persons. It is usually transmitted through oral ingestion, and therefore, a person with hepatitis A can spread the virus to others by practising poor personal hygiene." (US Department of Food and Agriculture, June 1997) The virus is associated with food handling, casual contact, and drinking water and eating fruits and vegetables in (and increasingly, from) developing countries. People have contracted the virus by way of changing contact lenses without washing their hands carefully enough.

"Hepatitis B is one of the commonest of all disease-causing viruses, with up to 90 per cent of the population of large parts of Africa and Asia infected." (London Times, February 17, 1998) Although generally dismissed as a disease spread exclusively via IV drug use and sexual contact, at least one hepatitis B case proves otherwise: "health experts believe the teacher may have become infected after a student sneezed onto her cracked, chapped hands." (Journal of the American Medical Association, 1997; 278:2167-2169) Dr. Gary Courtney, of St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny Ireland reported his first case of a hepatitis B mutant last fall, "whereby a regular test for the virus had proved negative even though the person was infected. 'It was in fact a person from Sierra Leone that had been tested. Now I do not want to add to the hype about immigrants, but you have to be aware that where there are immigrants there could be more mutants introduced to this country.'" (Irish Times, September 19, 1997)

Hepatitis is yet another health threat emerging from the Third World to make its presence felt in North America. There have been serious outbreaks of hepatitis A in some of the least likely places including, Sioux City and Des Moines, Iowa. Des Moines reported 178 confirmed cases in September 1997, "this compares to just 11 cases in Polk County during all of 1996." (Mercy West Medical Centre Bulletin, Clive, Iowa, September 27, 1997) The Des Moines cases were traced back to a restaurant food handler. "In Michigan, the number of confirmed hepatitis A cases through the third week of September was 943. ... In 1995, there were 364." (Detroit Free Press, September 29, 1997) Handwashing is second nature to people who have grown up with reliable, sanitary running water, but 19th century physicians were less sure of water -- then so intimately associated with cholera, typhoid and malaria. At that time, up to 25% of women who delivered babies in hospital died of 'childbed fever'. Washing hands in a chlorinated solution eventually led to a mortality rate of less than 1%. Although this does not begin to explain why current hospital studies show that "nurses and doctors wash only 30% of the required time between patient contacts and procedures." (Centre for Disease Control) "In the case of hepatitis B, health care workers are between 5 and 15 TIMES more likely to contract the virus than the general US population." (Association of Infection Control Professionals) After years of objections, the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons has called for the province's 23,000 doctors to finally submit to mandatory hepatitis B testing.

"The Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Dental Association both oppose the plan, arguing it infringes on their members' privacy and autonomy. Hepatitis B is the most infectious blood-borne disease and can be passed to a patient even if the doctor is wearing latex gloves, the college's governing council was told last week. ... Dr. Philip Berger, head of family medicine at St. Michael's Hospital and a prominent AIDS doctor, blasted the new policy. ... 'It's impossible to make physicians risk-free for patients and the public has generally accepted these risks,' Berger said." (Toronto Star, March 1, 1998) When patients are uninformed, how informed is their consent? Had Canada's shamefully abandoned hepatitis C victims "generally accepted these risks"? The University of Toronto now requires all medical students to have hepatitis B vaccinations, but during the interim, domesticated tax-paying cattle are on their own. Infected doctors are covered by disability insurance, but what of the patient? Does insurance compensate them (or us) for the lost years of training and practice? As per ordinaire, Health Canada is looking the other way, and has not seen fit to inform Canadians about potential problems with that interesting little restaurant down the street OR with the family doctor. Nor can beleaguered Canadian doctors really be blamed -- imagine the human rights backlog if doctors demanded the right to test for hepatitis the moment a new patient walks through the door?

Responsible management at Health Canada inclines toward running round-the-clock "turkey-alerts" and "stuffing advisories" during our traditional holidays. The Compliance Control people may really be on to something here; certainly they do not endorse Health Canada's motto: "Too little, too late -- and don't hurt anyone's feelings!" Under the circumstances, it may well be the prospect of lawsuits which has sparked a belated interest in the general welfare. "Health Canada will conduct spot checks for cleanliness aboard every cruise ship that docks at a Canadian port starting this spring. ... Under the program, modelled after the 1975 U.S. Vessel Sanitation Program, [just 23 years later] Health Canada inspectors will investigate ... the risk of food and water borne illnesses, such as diarrhoeal disease and other gastrointestinal problems. These often arise on passenger cruises as a result of lax sanitary conditions: unwashed hands preparing food or too little chlorine in the swimming pool. ... Dr. St. John of Canada's Laboratory Centre for Disease Control said crew members are often the focal point for infections because they arrive on board from all over the world" (Globe and Mail, February 24, 1998) With a duplicitous government in charge, there's little Canadians can do to maintain the standards we've always taken for granted. Public washrooms are a noxious blight best avoided. Public transit is presumably spending money to prevent shoving incidents rather than hosing the conveyances down. We can inoculate our children, be wary of pay telephones, bulk food bins, salad bars, convenience foods, cabs, currency and always ask for a straw in a restaurant (particularly when you notice your "server's" fingers gripping the top of the glass). But we can't live in a vacuum and escapees will be hunted down. -- Dial's new advertising tag is: "Aren't you glad you use a soap that kills bacteria?" Indeed. Wouldn't it be nice if more people bothered?