Tomorrow is Canada Day – July 1 – 143 years of our confederation. We’re not as old nor do we have the history of our big brother to the south – the US of eh, eh?
But we Canadians have a lot to be proud of.
Or we did.
Once upon a time.
Our population continues to grow – Statistics Canada, the federal government agency which keeps track of such things, tells us we’re now a country of over 34 million people. They also tell us that now 50 percent of our population wasn’t born here, and just over half of those people don’t speak either of our two official languages.
Wait a sec . . .
How can you go into someone’s home, take up roots there, and re-arrange the furniture without anyone minding?
That’s what has been going on in our home and native land, mostly in our large urban areas. There are streets in Toronto and Vancouver where if you don’t speak Chinese or Hindu, you won’t get very far – in fact you are made to feel uncomfortable intentionally.
If you ask the residents or business owners on those streets for directions, you’ll be told: “sorry, I don’t speak any English.” Funny though, they always speak perfect English when they tell you they don’t.
Newly settled parents to our great land even tell their kids not to play with anyone who’s not like them after school – they send them to special schools where all the kids are from families of their homeland, so during school they are free to do as they wish.
How unCanadian is that?
We warmly welcome newcomers to our great land, only to be given the shaft.
If and when we humble and polite Canadians mumble something about that being wrong, how it is best for all the kids in the neighbourhood to play together, the newcomers join forces upon us, using our own Human Rights and Freedoms laws against us, claiming we are in the wrong for discriminating against them.
Being the peace-loving, good natured and overly polite Canadians we are, we go back and sit on the bench, keeping it warm, hoping that one day the newcomers to our land will feel comfortable enough to break bread with and be our friends.
Problem is, the newcomers to our once great land are already quite comfortable, living their lives just as they did back in their native land, without you or me.
Essentially, they have already established their own country within our country.
They have setup their own culturally-specific schools, so that their kids will never have to mix and mingle with anyone outside their race or creed. They create their own restaurants, shops and businesses, hiring only others from their homeland, so they don’t have any misunderstandings with you or me. They read newspapers written for them, in their native languages, listen to music and radio stations in their native tongues – hell even good old CBC – Canada’s national broadcaster – is televising Hockey Night In Canada in Hindu so the newcomers can watch our game, without learning English or French.
You know something is amiss when Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry is replaced – period.
It isn’t just our national broadcaster, all government institutions and many big businesses are feeding the storm, making it one nasty beast.
The running joke used to be, in order to work for the Government of Canada, you had to like poutine on your hockey puck. In other words, you had to be fully bilingual, in both our official languages of English or French.
Not so any more – oh the federal government still hires fully bilingual people, but so long as you speak English OR French AND another language, they’ll almost certainly take you. Government brass love to brag about how they offer their services in over 120 different languages.
Not that those who come to this great land don’t deserve the same benefits as those who were born here. I’m sure whatever civil servant or politician came up with the notion of offering government services in a multitude of languages had the noblest of intentions.
However noble the initial intentions were, the trends and statistics clearly show that was one of many errors of judgement.
We’re being kicked out of our own country, slowly and silently by newcomers that just don’t want anything to do with Canadians.
Oh they’ll cry racism, and proudly hold up their citizenship cards – we give those things to anyone these days – another fault of our governmental policy.
But they are the ones being racist.
We aren’t the ones telling our kids not to play with their kids. We aren’t the ones not hiring people because they don’t look and sound like us. We aren’t the ones intentionally making others that don’t look like us or sound like us feel awkward or uncomfortable.
We’re just being typically Canadian, politically correct, peaceful, welcoming anyone into our homes, our schools, our workplaces – our lives.
Maybe we shouldn’t be so damn welcoming?
Happy Canada Day.
But we Canadians have a lot to be proud of.
Or we did.
Once upon a time.
Our population continues to grow – Statistics Canada, the federal government agency which keeps track of such things, tells us we’re now a country of over 34 million people. They also tell us that now 50 percent of our population wasn’t born here, and just over half of those people don’t speak either of our two official languages.
Wait a sec . . .
How can you go into someone’s home, take up roots there, and re-arrange the furniture without anyone minding?
That’s what has been going on in our home and native land, mostly in our large urban areas. There are streets in Toronto and Vancouver where if you don’t speak Chinese or Hindu, you won’t get very far – in fact you are made to feel uncomfortable intentionally.
If you ask the residents or business owners on those streets for directions, you’ll be told: “sorry, I don’t speak any English.” Funny though, they always speak perfect English when they tell you they don’t.
Newly settled parents to our great land even tell their kids not to play with anyone who’s not like them after school – they send them to special schools where all the kids are from families of their homeland, so during school they are free to do as they wish.
How unCanadian is that?
We warmly welcome newcomers to our great land, only to be given the shaft.
If and when we humble and polite Canadians mumble something about that being wrong, how it is best for all the kids in the neighbourhood to play together, the newcomers join forces upon us, using our own Human Rights and Freedoms laws against us, claiming we are in the wrong for discriminating against them.
Being the peace-loving, good natured and overly polite Canadians we are, we go back and sit on the bench, keeping it warm, hoping that one day the newcomers to our land will feel comfortable enough to break bread with and be our friends.
Problem is, the newcomers to our once great land are already quite comfortable, living their lives just as they did back in their native land, without you or me.
Essentially, they have already established their own country within our country.
They have setup their own culturally-specific schools, so that their kids will never have to mix and mingle with anyone outside their race or creed. They create their own restaurants, shops and businesses, hiring only others from their homeland, so they don’t have any misunderstandings with you or me. They read newspapers written for them, in their native languages, listen to music and radio stations in their native tongues – hell even good old CBC – Canada’s national broadcaster – is televising Hockey Night In Canada in Hindu so the newcomers can watch our game, without learning English or French.
You know something is amiss when Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry is replaced – period.
It isn’t just our national broadcaster, all government institutions and many big businesses are feeding the storm, making it one nasty beast.
The running joke used to be, in order to work for the Government of Canada, you had to like poutine on your hockey puck. In other words, you had to be fully bilingual, in both our official languages of English or French.
Not so any more – oh the federal government still hires fully bilingual people, but so long as you speak English OR French AND another language, they’ll almost certainly take you. Government brass love to brag about how they offer their services in over 120 different languages.
Not that those who come to this great land don’t deserve the same benefits as those who were born here. I’m sure whatever civil servant or politician came up with the notion of offering government services in a multitude of languages had the noblest of intentions.
However noble the initial intentions were, the trends and statistics clearly show that was one of many errors of judgement.
We’re being kicked out of our own country, slowly and silently by newcomers that just don’t want anything to do with Canadians.
Oh they’ll cry racism, and proudly hold up their citizenship cards – we give those things to anyone these days – another fault of our governmental policy.
But they are the ones being racist.
We aren’t the ones telling our kids not to play with their kids. We aren’t the ones not hiring people because they don’t look and sound like us. We aren’t the ones intentionally making others that don’t look like us or sound like us feel awkward or uncomfortable.
We’re just being typically Canadian, politically correct, peaceful, welcoming anyone into our homes, our schools, our workplaces – our lives.
Maybe we shouldn’t be so damn welcoming?
Happy Canada Day.
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