"...we will all
pay more in the long run."
No disrespect to Dan Hill, the author of these words, but
they are almost insulting to Canadians.
Did the poor Jews coming from Eastern Europe - fleeing
poverty and prejudice - many decades ago tell us we needed to make special
investments in their children?
Did the poor Irish - fleeing famine, poverty, and prejudice
- come telling us we needed to make special investments in their children?
Did the poor Chinese, as they came and worked exhaustingly
hard in their little family businesses, tell us we needed to make special
investments in their children?
Do the migrant workers, returning each year doing very hard
work, demand special investments for their children?
But we get this plea, time and time again, from our
Caribbean community - the times generally being immediately after members of
their community have broken many of our laws by carrying loaded guns, illegal
guns, and opening fire in insane fashion.
And I would like to remind Dan Hill and others making these
kinds of special pleas that we DO invest in them and their children, and a very
substantial investment indeed.
We give costly free medical care to every child and parent,
something an immigrant to the United States would not receive.
We give free schooling to every child, and the schools do
not resemble the broken-down horrors you would find in American ghettos.
We give subsidized public housing to many immigrant
families, subsidized housing that Canadians themselves in poor circumstances often
have to wait long periods for.
We give what are, on the whole the safest streets in North
America, on which your children can play.
We give what is as prejudice-free an environment in which to
grow and learn and work as you will find anywhere. No American city has quite
the same environment. And no city in Jamaica has this either.
The set of benefits and opportunities an immigrant to Canada
receives are so generous and attractive that were we to "open the
doors," as it were, millions from many places would come running.
No one can make an immigrant a success if he or she is
determined to break our laws and pour violence out onto our streets.
Immigrants to Canada get opportunity, generous opportunity
and help, but they don't get guarantees, and they certainly do not get
exemptions from our laws.
No society in the world sees that any differently.
