Liberal Spin Doctors Never Miss A Trick- Do They?

[Bruce Monkhouse]

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1113826483306_55?hub=topstories
Ottawa to streamline Canada's immigration system
CTV.ca News Staff

The government is expected to announce changes to the immigration system today that will make it easier for immigrants to be reunited with their parents and grandparents.
Immigration Minister Joe Volpe is also expected to loosen rules on international college and university students, making it easier for them to work while they're in this country, sources told The Canadian Press.
Volpe will announce the changes to the system at news conferences in Toronto and Montreal today.
Currently, citizenship applicants can face up to a two-year wait for a decision. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada hopes to dramatically reduce the backlog of cases and cut the waiting period in half.

On family reunification, the department's goal is to cut down on the massive list of about 100,000 cases they have on file and process three times the number of applications per year -- from the current 6,000 to about 18,000.
Foreign students now can only get on-campus jobs while they attend school in Canada. Under the relaxed rules, they'll be able to find employment off-campus.
"The international students have been a net asset to the country so we are going to find some ways of improving access to international students for Canadian universities," Volpe's communications director Stephen Heckbert told The Globe and Mail.

Heckbert also spoke of incentives for foreign students to work outside of large urban centres.
International students can now work in the country for only up to a year after graduation. But if they take jobs outside Canada's three big cities of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, they'll be able to work for up to two years after graduating under the new rules.
Colleges and universities have been lobbying for the changes, in hopes to attract more international students.

Volpe's announcement isn't the only major initiative introduced by the Liberals recently. Last Friday, Martin made a high-profile visit to Vancouver to sign a gas tax deal that allows the city to share federal gasoline tax revenue.
This comes as the Liberals are being hammered with fallout from Justice Gomery's inquiry into the sponsorship scandal and are facing the possibility of a summer election.

But federal officials said the recent announcements aren't part of a public relations campaign to take voters' minds off the scandal that's shaken Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government.
One cabinet official told The Canadian Press that Volpe was making the move because it's sound public policy and that it's not an effort to buy votes and curry favour in ethnic communities.A Toronto-area Liberal MP who's been lobbying Volpe for months to overhaul the immigration system said, "I'm ecstatic."

"People can say it's opportunistic, but it's the right thing for the people of Canada, it's the right thing for the families of Canada,'' Jim Karygiannis told The Canadian Press.

Volpe is also expected to announce more money and personnel to fast-track the admission of about 110,000 immigrant wage earners with badly needed skills.

"We have to turn ourselves from a risk-management system into a recruitment system,'' Volpe told the Edmonton Journal."We have to rethink how we do business and attract people."

With files from The Canadian Press

This is vote-buying with our money again, bringing over parents and grand-parents?.....yea, just when they are at the age that they need health care the most.........without spending a lifetime paying into it.

 

[sigpig]

Wow!!! Bruce Monkhouse starting a thread slamming "Liberal Spin Dooctors", whoda thunkit? Cause we all know them them good, honest conservative types never put a spin on any of their ideas  :

Sure, that's one way to look at this announcement, and I won't argue with it. When did politicians do anything that wasn't to their benefit?

But, speaking as someone who is currently an immigrant in the US (oh, that's right, Bruce doesn't think I should be living here), doing something to make it easier for lawful immigrants to have their families join them isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Sigpig, you have to agree the timing of this is suspicious. It is also a well kinown fact that breeding fear within the immigrant community is an established pattern of behaviour of the liberals, and indeed the left, in Canada. I think Bruce brings up a good point ... why should we permit people to simply show up out of the blue and have access to our social safety net without contributing a dime or any effort at building the country?

I find this immigration policy particularly revolting when governments here consistently oppose offering proper health care and education services to disabled children and support for their parents and caregivers, yet can somehow find millions of dollars to assist and aide foreigners with the very same services. The answer is simple - disabled children don't vote and their caregivers are not a large enough group to influence any election. But immigrants, that is a whole other ball game, particularly in large urban centres.   

 

[Trinity]

doing something to make it easier for lawful immigrants to have their families join them isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Ok.. i'll bite...

Why and how..  just curious...

 

[Thirstyson]

doing something to make it easier for lawful immigrants to have their families join them isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Ok.. i'll bite...

Why and how..  just curious...

I'd be more intersted in the opposite: why would it be a bad thing?

 

[sigpig]

Sigpig, you have to agree the timing of this is suspicious.

I thought I did

It is also a well kinown fact that breeding fear within the immigrant community is an established pattern of behaviour of the liberals, and indeed the left, in Canada.

True. Can not the opposite be said of the right? Raising fear of the immigrant community?

I find this immigration policy particularly revolting when governments here consistently oppose offering proper health care and education services to disabled children and support for their parents and caregivers, yet can somehow find millions of dollars to assist and aide foreigners with the very same services. The answer is simple - disabled children don't vote and their caregivers are not a large enough group to influence any election. But immigrants, that is a whole other ball game, particularly in large urban centres.

Politics and politicians suck on both sides of the spectrum. Yes, immigrantion is always a 'comfort' issue for the left, as much as guns and superior morality are for the right.

 

[sigpig]

Ok.. i'll bite...

Why and how..  just curious...

Well, I'm looney left-leaning softie, but I always thought keeping families together was a good thing. If a lawful, law abiding immigrant has reached a certain status, citizenship being an obvious level, then why shouldn't that person be able to bring their family to be with them using a timely and reasonable process?

I can't speak to these policies in any detail because I don't know what they are and have no intentions of finding out. I have a hard enough time keeping track of the US policies that relate to me and my family. I was just wondering why this is such a bad thing, timing and politics aside.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Quote from Sigpig,
But, speaking as someone who is currently an immigrant in the US (oh, that's right, Bruce doesn't think I should be living here),

...no, I'm glad you're there, I just find it a bit hypercritical that you slam the US the way you do.....and as for your point about the"liberal spin doctors" and myself, I would post the same thing for the Bloc, Torys, NDP, even Mr. Bush in the same " perfect timing" circumstances.
[ though I admit its easier this way ]
But one question that you avoided like the plague, why should the parents of "legal" immigrants be able to slide right in to the social safety net when it can't even substain itself now?
We have a guy at work who is going to wait almost a year for knee surgery, a year! If you moved your parents down there also would you expect the State of Florida to provide them health care?    So, maybe some kind of "contract" , where the sponsor is responsible for certain things would alleviate some peoples fear.

 

[Guardian]

Well, I'm looney left-leaning softie, but I always thought keeping families together was a good thing. If a lawful, law abiding immigrant has reached a certain status, citizenship being an obvious level, then why shouldn't that person be able to bring their family to be with them using a timely and reasonable process?

While reuniting families is certainly a laudable goal, I fail to agree that that in itself is a safe basis for an immigration policy. A further point - just because the immigrant in question is law-abiding, does that necessarily mean that his/her family would be similarly law-abiding? I could see all sorts of Al-Qaeda types just jumping on this (or to be ethnically fair, IRA, Tamil Tigers, or any other terrorist outfits?)

 

[rw4th]

If immigrants want so desperately to be reunited with their family, can they just not go back their country of origin? This may sound harsh, but no one asked them to move to Canada, they came here all on their own seeking a new life, so I don't see why I should flip the bill for bringing their parents over. That responsibility falls squarely on the immigrant's shoulders.

Ok, that said, this isn't necessarily a bad thing and their really aren't any details in the article about how it will be implemented. If all it involves is more efficiently processing immigration applications, then I have no problems with it as long as family member meet the same requirements for immigration as anybody else. Bringing the sick grandma and grandpa over so they can get free health care should NOT be an option. 

 

[sigpig]

...no, I'm glad you're there, I just find it a bit hypercritical that you slam the US the way you do....

Is hypercritical really, really, really hypocritical? 

But one question that you avoided like the plague, why should the parents of "legal" immigrants be able to slide right in to the social safety net when it can't even substain itself now?
We have a guy at work who is going to wait almost a year for knee surgery, a year! If you moved your parents down there also would you expect the State of Florida to provide them health care?    So, maybe some kind of "contract" , where the sponsor is responsible for certain things would alleviate some peoples fear.

I have no problem with some kind of 'contract' or agreement about paying for the care of your relatives. I had to fill out forms for my wife and kids indicating what my resources were and promising that they wouldn't become burdens in the US. I agree with that. I didn't answer because, as I stated elsewhere, I'm quite unfamiliar with the existing Canadian rules and didn't want to answer and look stupid - well, more than I ususally do  ;D

 

[sigpig]

While reuniting families is certainly a laudable goal, I fail to agree that that in itself is a safe basis for an immigration policy. A further point - just because the immigrant in question is law-abiding, does that necessarily mean that his/her family would be similarly law-abiding? I could see all sorts of Al-Qaeda types just jumping on this (or to be ethnically fair, IRA, Tamil Tigers, or any other terrorist outfits?)

Again, I don't know the details of Canadian immigration procedures but it would make sense to conduct some kind of security check on any kind of potential immigrant. Did I say fling the doors open?

As someone who has endured the process here in the US I'm the last person who wants someone to get off easy in their own process.

 

[sigpig]

If immigrants want so desperately to be reunited with their family, can they just not go back their country of origin? This may sound harsh, but no one asked them to move to Canada, they came here all on their own seeking a new life, so I don't see why I should flip the bill for bringing their parents over. That responsibility falls squarely on the immigrant's shoulders.

Ok, that said, this isn't necessarily a bad thing and their really aren't any details in the article about how it will be implemented. If all it involves is more efficiently processing immigration applications, then I have no problems with it as long as family member meet the same requirements for immigration as anybody else. Bringing the sick grandma and grandpa over so they can get free health care should NOT be an option. 

Agreed on all points, except for the go back where you came from stuff. I see no reason for the Canadian system to provide the same level of service to newcomers as it does for citizens or the Canadian equivalent of permanent residents (told you I wasn't up on my Canadian regulations).

Some kind of guarantee from the sponsoring family about payment for medical (non-emergency) or other services could be part of the process.

 

[Steel Badger]

I have to agree with RW and Bruce

I have no issue with new Canadians bringing over their spouse and children, but parents and grandparents are another matter....

At least until such time as the Government can take care of some of its most pressing responsibilities: ie the health care of current citizens or the care of our veterans who safeguarded the country our politicians mismanage......
( Cliff Chadderton could certainly use help convince the goverment to safe-guard our Veteran's)

 

[rw4th]

Agreed on all points, except for the go back where you came from stuff

â Å“Go back where you came fromâ ? is not quite how I meant it. What I meant is if an immigrant really misses his/her family then the burden of being reunited with them is on him/her and not on the Canadian government. They made the choice to come here and to separate themselves from their loved ones, nobody forced them. If they can't bear the separation, and don't have the financial means to bring their family here, then they should seriously consider going back. At no point however should the government even entertain the possibility of saying â Å“awww, you poor lonely immigrant, here's a few thousand bucks to bring your family overâ ?. Is that clearer?

 

[sigpig]

â Å“Go back where you came fromâ ? is not quite how I meant it. What I meant is if an immigrant really misses his/her family then the burden of being reunited with them is on him/her and not on the Canadian government. They made the choice to come here and to separate themselves from their loved ones, nobody forced them. If they can't bear the separation, and don't have the financial means to bring their family here, then they should seriously consider going back. At no point however should the government even entertain the possibility of saying â Å“awww, you poor lonely immigrant, here's a few thousand bucks to bring your family overâ ?. Is that clearer?

Yes it is clearer. Is money actually being given to sponsors to bring over family members or is that extra money going to the department to hire more staff to clear up the backlog?

 

[TCBF]

Notwithstanding the fact that I am normally slightly to the right of Attila the Hun on most issues, I sorta side with SigPig on this one.

I would ask that the usual health standards be enforced, or perhaps strengthened.  We don't need a boatload of TB or Ebola powering up the St. Lawrence.

So, I vote "Yea" on principle, but on practice I would want some stringint health conditions, which, probably, caused the backlog we are about to eliminate in the first place.

As for the skilled workers, I do not believe we should rob Doctors from Elbownia so we can employ them as cab drivers in Kapuskasing.

Companies wanting outsider skills should first prove it is impossible to train a Canadian.

Tom

 

[LowRider]

Can't really say i'm surprised by this move.Immigration/multicultisim is the Liberal solution to every problem,or so they would have us believe anyway.They are currently trying a subsidized immigration scheme here in order to solve our population and econmic problems in the Maritimes.
Really the only thing the Liberals hope to accomplish with all this,is to increase their loyal electorate and maintain their deathgrip on Canadian politics.

 

[TCBF]

There is a population problem in the Maritimes:  too many people.  You solve it by moving people out to where the jobs are, not bringing them in to where the jobs aren't.

Tom

 

[LowRider]

There is a population problem in the Maritimes:  too many people

.
According to the government it's quite the opposite.





 

You solve it by moving people out to where the jobs are, not bringing them in to where the jobs aren't

.
That would be a sensible solution to a problem.liberals aren't capable of that type of reasoning unless it benefits them somehow.