Juno News - October 30, 2019Trudeau's immigration values test flip-flop
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Summary
Quebec wants to require immigrants to the province to have a baseline understanding and acceptance of Quebec values, like gender equality and pluralism. Justin Trudeau has been silent on the matter, despite the fact that he endorsed a similar proposal during the federal election campaign.
Transcript
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Once again Quebec gets to play by different rules than the rest of the
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country. Quebec can do what it wants, the federal government will never tell them
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otherwise even after an election when Quebec votes are no longer required. The
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latest example of this comes in Quebec's official announcement that it will be
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pursuing a value screening when it comes to immigrants. We don't yet know the
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specific test that will be used or the values that in particular will be screened
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for but starting in January, just a couple of months from now, the Quebec
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government will ensure that all immigrants to the province have a
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baseline understanding and acceptance of Quebec values. Things like gender
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equality, things like pluralism. Now you may disagree with Quebec values, you may
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disagree with the specific application of them in this case, but what's
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interesting is that not a peep has been heard from Justin Trudeau to condemn this.
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Moreover, when the topic came up during the federal election, Justin Trudeau
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endorsed the idea that Quebec has a right without federal intervention to ensure
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its immigration system is in accordance with the standards it sets out for
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itself. Now, by the way, I think that value screening and immigration is paramount. You
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want to make sure that anyone coming to your country, your province, your community
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is going to fit in. This isn't about eradicating people's own identity, it's not
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about banning them from practicing certain religious expressions, which Quebec's
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Bill 21 does in some case. It's about making sure that there is a fit between
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someone who comes from a country where the values are different and this country
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where the values are the ones that we as a country decide to embrace on a regular
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basis. So Quebec is not off base in wanting to achieve this. The problem is
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that Justin Trudeau has relentlessly attacked anyone who's talked about
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values and immigration in other capacities. You may remember back in 2017,
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Kelly Leach, at the time a Conservative leadership candidate, had a very similar
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proposal for the country as a whole. She gave examples of some of these
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questions during the campaign, basically making sure that people who immigrate to
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Canada are going to have shared values on religious freedom, free speech, gender
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equality, things that all of us in Canada would say are national values and thus
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things that shouldn't be controversial to ask about or to ensure are reflected in
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those who come here. But what happened? The left called Kelly Leach racist. Justin
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Trudeau said, oh my goodness, can you imagine what a Conservative party led by
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Kelly Leach would look like? And she was subjected to some of the most vitriolic hate
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of any Conservative candidate in that leadership race. And now when Quebec puts
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forward what is effectively the same idea, there is absolute silence from Justin
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Trudeau. Now this doesn't mean that Justin Trudeau has come around on the
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question of value screening and immigration. All it means is that Justin
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Trudeau is still petrified of taking off Quebec. This is a common theme among
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federal leaders. We saw it with Bill 21, which by the way was a bill that I think
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was worthy of federal government criticism, and now we're seeing it in
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terms of Quebec immigration. But this fear of Quebec, this trembling and quaking in
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the boots whenever Quebec votes are on the line, has to stop. We cannot cede control
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over the national discourse to one particular province, even if they're
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doing something that isn't, in this case, all that terrible an idea, depending on
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how it manifests going forward. But this is what's happening right now. For True