TORONTO - Ahmed Hussen must be looking around for a guardian angel. He is approaching the ridicule- inspiring levels of incompetence attained by Jason Kenney, former Minister of Immigration in the Harper Government.
The Corriere likened his Immigration plan to one made by cartoonists working in the Walt Disney corporation, and he as its Mickey Mouse. Only person in the entire country thought he had the cranial capacity to do his job.
That would be the former publisher of the National Post, former Lord in the British parliament, an immensely accomplished individual – culturally and financially. However, Conrad Black had chosen to relinquish his Canadian citizenship in order to receive that appointment to the House of Lords.
After he was convicted of felonious conduct in the US Courts, he lost his Lordship and his Canadian citizenship. He became a man without country - a criminal alien, so to speak. A cultured one, to be sure but ineligible for entry into Canada. He wanted back in.
Minister Jason Kenney, busy keeping out Italians, Poles and Portuguese and other Southern European types (because of their unacceptable command of the Queens’ English), convinced himself that it was ok to make an exception for a convicted felon.
Thus was born the Black-Kenney “love a¤air – mutual admiration society”. Ahmed Hussen seems to have picked up where Kenney left o¤. If there is someone in the land who can make rhyme or reason from any of his initiatives, statements or plans, she/he should step forward. Initially, he endorsed the Pilot Project for “regularizing undocumented workers” in Ontario, announced by John McCallum, his immediate predecessor.
Then he strategically set it aside, earning him and his government a lawsuit. Then, on October 3rd, the Pilot Project was “re-announced” in a most circumspect fashion as Motion 190, instructing the House Standing Committee on Human Resources to study the causes, consequences and explore solutions.
It’s already been studied to death. He could save his government time and money. The are many studies. He could call us we’ll make them available free of charge in the interest of good public policy. His Atlantic Pilot Project in Immigration, which bear a striking similarity to the age-old “hidden subsidies” for non-existent industrial diversification have been recently stamped as “scams” by the very people they are designed to help.
In fact, the Canadian Border Services Agency - for which his Cabinet colleague Ralph Goodale is Minister – caused the shutting down of the Provincial Nominee Program in P.E.I. The program in New Brunswick is under similar scrutiny. But, that’s a story for another article. As a diversionary tactic, for it served no other purpose, Hussen announced the extension of his formerly tabled Parliamentary five-year program by one more year.
The avowed aim was to be able to bring in 7,500 more refugees – four years from now, all statistical estimates remaining unaltered. His department, meanwhile, admitted on its website, that it cannot process the current number of immigration and/or refugee applications. Over in Quebec the government( s) have been very aggressive in banking financial benefits from their handling of the Immigration program.
Now, the newly elected CAQ government has threatened to subject immigrants to a French language competency test three years after they have been “landed”. Those that do not meet the standard will be “deported”. To where? By the way, just to clear up any confusion, any monies forwarded by those immigrants as part of their application stays in Quebec.
Hussen’s response? Allocate a further $11 million for the better integration of Francophone immigrants into the Canadian economy. Presumably, these francophone immigrants, specifically “recruited” for their French language skills, will find it easier to work in a French-language work environment.
Maybe there are fewer of those jobs than Hussen knows. The Francophone immigrants are, by his own assessment, from Haiti, sub-Saharan Africa and Arab Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon or Syria) where the language of instruction is French from grade one onward. We are all God’s children.
There should be room for all of us. Minister Hussen seems to have forgotten about the children of the “undocumented workers” who are already working and integrated. They are only missing the benefit of “status” – the designation of permanent resident. It will not cost the federal government anything to stop the “clowning around” and address the injustice.
