Dear Immigration Reformer:

The Canadian Government’s immigration policy is to replace and overwhelm the European founder/settler people of this country. That explains their love affair with Third World immigration. It also explains the mania, despite high unemployment rates, to bring, more, and more, and more and to raise the target to at least 320,000 from the present 235,000 level. They can’t replace us fast enough.

Back in the 1960s, Tom Kent of the London School of Economics, a close advisor the Lester Pearson boasted that throwing open the immigration doors to the Third World would destroy “Orange, Tory Toronto “ although, in 1965, the year of the change, Toronto wasn’t particularly Orange or Tory. What he really meant was English.

For years, there’s been a flood of anecdotal evidence of people, English or European, educated, well qualified, with money in the bank having every imaginable roadblock thrown in their way. The government doesn’t want Europeans, especially Britons. They just might fit it. We need more “diversity”. The last thing we need are reinforcements for the beleaguered Europeans in Canada.

Thus, the following story is a perfect example of the sort of anti-English discrimination at work.

Randall Denley of the Ottawa Citizen (Jan. 10, 2006) reports:

“The official line in Canada is that a steady flow of immigrants is critical to the country’s future. Even if they don’t speak French or English or have job skills, we still let them in. We are even prepared to spend millions of dollars a year to help them get started. Our only regret is that we can’t take more. Given all of that, it’s difficult to understand the story of Clive and Pattie Knight and their son, 17-year-old Harry. The English family moved to Canada and applied for permanent residence in the summer of 2003. More than two years later, all our citizenship and immigration officials have been able to tell the Knights is their application is likely to be looked at next year. In the meantime, their visitors’ visas don’t allow them to work and they can’t leave the country for fear of not getting back in.”

“The Knights’ goals are laudable. Mrs. Knight’s parents, John and Joyce Bolt, moved to Canada and became citizens more than 20 years ago, but they were in ill health and the Knights wanted to look after them. The retired school principal and construction business owner had been visiting Canada for years and loved it. They intended to invest in a business and hire Canadian workers. In 1998, they bought a 100-acre property at Combermere, near Barry’s Bay, with the idea of eventually turning it into a small nature resort aimed at other English couples.”

“Great plan, but it turns out ordinary English-speaking people with some money in their pockets and the desire to help their parents don’t exactly fit into any of the many queues that make up Canada’s immigration system. … So far, the Knights have paid $5,688 in fees for the privilege of waiting in line. All this delay has a real-life impact on those trying to get into this country. The Knights can’t start their business without knowing if they can stay in Canada. We won’t let them work, so they have been using up their savings to live. If they leave to visit their other children or Mr. Knight’s parents in Britain, there is no guarantee they will be readmitted. They want Mrs. Bolt to live with them, but worry what will happen to her if they are told to leave. “

Paul Fromm

Director

CANADA FIRST IMMIGRATION REFORM COMMITTEE

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Here’s what happens when you don’t fit immigrant queue

The Ottawa Citizen (Tuesday, January 10, 2006)

by Randall Denley

The official line in Canada is that a steady flow of immigrants is critical to the country’s future. Even if they don’t speak French or English or have job skills, we still let them in. We are even prepared to spend millions of dollars a year to help them get started. Our only regret is that we can’t take more.

Given all of that, it’s difficult to understand the story of Clive and Pattie Knight and their son, 17-year-old Harry. The English family moved to Canada and applied for permanent residence in the summer of 2003. More than two years later, all our citizenship and immigration officials have been able to tell the Knights is their application is likely to be looked at next year. In the meantime, their visitors’ visas don’t allow them to work and they can’t leave the country for fear of not getting back in.

The Knights’ goals are laudable. Mrs. Knight’s parents, John and Joyce Bolt, moved to Canada and became citizens more than 20 years ago, but they were in ill health and the Knights wanted to look after them. The retired school principal and construction business owner had been visiting Canada for years and loved it. They intended to invest in a business and hire Canadian workers. In 1998, they bought a 100-acre property at Combermere, near Barry’s Bay, with the idea of eventually turning it into a small nature resort aimed at other English couples.

Great plan, but it turns out ordinary English-speaking people with some money in their pockets and the desire to help their parents don’t exactly fit into any of the many queues that make up Canada’s immigration system.

Canada is big on reuniting families and our immigration rules envision just about every type of relationship in the family category, right down to orphaned nephews and nieces. About the only thing we haven’t thought of is adult children moving here to look after parents. That ruled out the family queue for the Knights.

Our entrepreneur and business investor classes have lots of restrictions and are aimed at people with recent business experience and lots of money. There is a queue for self-employed people, but the annual immigration report says we want them only in the areas of “culture, athletics or farm management.”

That leaves only “compassionate and humanitarian” grounds, and that’s the lineup the Knights have been in since 2003. The citizenship and immigration website shows a processing time of 14 months for compassionate and humanitarian applications. That’s only part of the picture, though. The processing clock doesn’t start running until the application is opened. That can take an indefinite period of time. Years, apparently. Then the immigration people spend 14 months to make sure the applicant isn’t a criminal or someone obviously unsuitable. The humanitarian and compassionate applications are sent to immigration office for more examination. There is no estimate of how long that takes.

Each case in the compassionate and humanitarian queue is unique, says citizenship and immigration spokesman Gregg Scott, so it’s not really possible to say how long one would take.

So far, the Knights have paid $5,688 in fees for the privilege of waiting in line. All this delay has a real-life impact on those trying to get into this country. The Knights can’t start their business without knowing if they can stay in Canada. We won’t let them work, so they have been using up their savings to live. If they leave to visit their other children or Mr. Knight’s parents in Britain, there is no guarantee they will be readmitted. They want Mrs. Bolt to live with them, but worry what will happen to her if they are told to leave.

Son Harry can’t work either. He had a co-op job lined up in Algonquin Park, but the government wouldn’t let him take it because Canadians were qualified. Harry wants to go to university next year, but without permanent status for his parents, he would face a financially unaffordable foreign student fee.

“It’s confusing not knowing where things are going,” Harry says. “I’m kind of left behind, because I don’t have my own income or way to support myself.”

There is a compelling time pressure here. Since the process began, Mrs. Knight’s father has died. Her mother is 84 years old and faces heart surgery in March.

“The fact that my father died not knowing who would look after mom was painful,” Mrs. Knight says.

By the time some bureaucrat gets around to opening the immigration file, Mrs. Bolt might not still be with us. One can easily imagine that bureaucrat ruling against the Knights’ application, simply because the person they were trying to show compassion to has already died.

The Knights are part of a vast queue of 745,000 people who have applied for permanent status in Canada, but that doesn’t fully explain the endless delay in their case. How long does it take to say yes? The Knights are already living here, they are financially self-sufficient and are contributing to their community. She is working as a literacy volunteer, he’s coaching a rugby team. The cost to Canada of integrating them is zero.

Canadians would surely approve our country admitting people for compassionate or humanitarian reasons, but where’s the compassion or humanity in a process that leaves would-be immigrants in limbo for years?

Contact Randall Denley at 596-3756 or by e-mail, rdenley@thecitizen.canwest.com

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