'Scuse Me?

A story from Sun Media today describes the plight of some 85,000 people in Toronto, Ontario. These estimated 85,000 people are upset at Mayor David Miller because they are having a great deal of difficulty gaining access to Social Housing, Welfare, Health Care, Schools and better-than-minimum-wage jobs.

Yes, somewhere between the population of Niagara Falls (82,000) and Pickering (88,000) or, the combined population of Timmins and West Vancouver (source 2006 Census) are upset that they can't access the same Government run services as you and me.

Why not?

They are illegal immigrants.

I'm not making this up.

Eighty-Five Thousand Illegal Immigrants.

In Toronto alone.

Oh, it gets better. They have formed a coalition and are demanding the same rights as a person who was born here or who came here via the normal channels. They have a website, http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org , which has some very, shall we say, insightful reading.

Their list of 'demands' reads thus:

• An end to all deportations and detentions
• The implementation of a full and inclusive regularization program for all non-status people
• Access without fear to essential services for all undocumented people
• The recognition of indigenous sovereignty
• An end to the exploitation of temporary workers
• An end to all imperialist wars and occupations
• An end to the use of Security Certificates and secret trials

End all deportations? Sure. We will let you stay here, even if you are a criminal. It took me about 12 seconds on the net to find a story we hear often, "Gang Member Deported, Again". I am well aware that these cases are 1%ers, but, it floors me that we can't keep foreign born criminals out, yet natural born criminals can't get a passport to leave.

Secret trials? Well I suppose if we knew about them they wouldn't be secret.

I won't comment on the rest of the list of demands.

This is not just a local organization, it is international.

The basic principle is that if they make it here, they shouldn't need to go through all the proper channels and we shouldn't make them leave.

I am not against immigration, it is necessary to our survival as a country.

I am not against true refugees, I remember the Boat People.

A quick survey of a few friends revealed what we all know; that either themselves or their immediate ancestry were immigrants. Heck we all descended from people from other countries.

Among my immediate co-workers are both First and Second Generation Canadian's. Their families both came here after wars, and landed legally. My In-Laws did the same. My Great Grandfather on my Mother's side came over in the Potato Famine. My Great Uncle went to England for WWI, and married and found work, but still had to return to Canada and apply, and he was a British Subject!

I work with a man born in Angola, who came here for a better life for his family, escaping a bloody civil war. Should he be sent home? No. He went through all the proper channels and jumped through all the hoops. It takes a lot of guts to uproot your family, but to him it was well worth it.

According to this Organization, all he should have had to do was get here.

He should feel cheated.

We all should feel cheated.

DJW