The subject of illegal immigrants in Canada has been in the news since shortly after the Conservatives formed the government in early February. In the last few months of the Liberal regime, then Citizenship and Immigration Minister Joe Volpe floated the idea of some sort of amnesty program for illegal construction workers, mainly those from Portugal. Not surprisingly, the new government had no intention of going along with the proposal and this has led to the odd demonstration taking place. as well as some protests and rallies there were the expected doom and gloom scenarios painted by construction industry unions about construction in the country's major cities will grind to a complete halt if illegal workers are deported from Canada. apparently, the possibility of changing immigration regulations to make it easier for construction workers to come to Canada legally never crossed their minds. But unlike the United States, there has been no groundswell of support in this country for those people who are here illegally.
Many of the demonstrations and rallies that have been held and have been planned are being done by the usual suspect special interest groups. Leading many of the protests is the group "No one is illegal" who state on their website that everyone who is in Canada has a "right" to citizenship and the only reason that illegals are denied this right is because we have a racist government. "No one is illegal" is so far out of the mainstream that the majority of Canadians are bound to tune it out.
The subject of illegal immigrants is currently in the headlines after a couple of incidents in Toronto schools last week. Immigration officers went to one school, took two girls aged 7 and 14 to the office and then phoned their mother who is here illegally and threatened to take the children away if she didn't show up in 30 minutes. In another incident officers went to a school, removed a 14 and 15-year-old from class and took them outside to a van where their mother was being held. These actions were severely denounced by the schools, the school boards and many ordinary Canadians. But what was missing in the criticism of the enforcement action was any apparent sympathy for the fact that the parents of these kids are illegally here and about to be deported.
The way illegal immigrants are described in the media when incidents like the above occur are a good barometer of how the country feels. Rarely do we ever see media use politically correct terms such as "undocumented residents" or "undocumented workers" that is so popular in the U.S. Most of the mainstream media simply refer to the illegals as those who are under a deportation order. One of the few exceptions was CTV's Dana Levenson, who referred to the mother of one of the students that were taken out of class as an "immigrant mother". The use of the term "immigrant" to refer to illegal immigrants is in vogue in the United States now in order to blur the distinction between those who are living permanently in the U.S. legally and those that are there illegally. as CTV described the woman on their website as an "illegal-immigrant mother", Levenson's description was probably just an oversight on the part of a reporter doing a live report.
Unlike our neighbours to the south, Canadians are taking a harder line against those who come here without playing by the rules. The "do not deport" crowd seem to be restricted to those on the far left and those who have a vested interest in allowing illegal immigrants to remain in Canada. It is unlikely we will see the kind of mass demonstrations that are taking place in the United States.
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