Juno News - Vetting and integrating immigrants will be an election issue

00:00:00.000 I don't want to become a broken record when it comes to talking about immigration and

00:00:13.380 refugee issues but I think the topic is going to recur in the coming months between now and

00:00:18.240 the election and we really want to hammer home some points about how we should be looking at

00:00:23.160 this issue and what the solutions are to the actual problems because this has recurred in

00:00:28.500 recent weeks in recent months but we're only going to see more of it and the latest is a new

00:00:32.940 poll commissioned by CBC that's come out it's a poll that looks at quite a large sample speaking

00:00:37.860 to 4,500 Canadians and they talked to them about a whole slew of issues now they're releasing these

00:00:43.800 polls in different installments as it as it goes by topic and one that just came out was looking at

00:00:48.960 immigration and refugees 75% of respondents say they would like the focus to be on skilled labor

00:00:56.040 people with with labor skills coming into the market 57% of respondents say they want fewer

00:01:02.820 refugees do not bring in as many refugees now right away sound the alarm you've got all these 1.00

00:01:10.620 people coming in to use the R word racist at least that's what it's implied and then we have to roll

00:01:15.720 out all these various experts to speak to Canadians about why they are ignorant and mistaken and allay 0.95

00:01:21.120 their fears and anxieties and basically let them know that they're guilty of wrong think and then

00:01:25.720 teaching them how to reverse that opinion to reverse that perspective now I always think the nerve of

00:01:30.980 it for someone like immigration minister Ahmed Hussain to come out and chastise people about their views

00:01:35.740 when you're talking about the majority of people these are the people that you are tasked with serving

00:01:41.120 and if the majority have an opinion I think the solution is not to belittle their views or ignore it or go

00:01:46.740 okay well this is an opportunity for me to tell these people they're ignorant and try and reverse

00:01:51.120 their views no the solution is to take a listen to what they're saying and why they're saying it and

00:01:56.940 try to get to the bottom of it now these polls usually don't define their terms of course and

00:02:01.380 they're not focus groups you're not sitting down and really hashing out the issue you're just asking

00:02:05.140 people a few basic questions and after after watching polling about immigration and refugee issues for a

00:02:11.440 number of years now I've come to the conclusion that the isolated variable is integration now we

00:02:18.500 had that issue two years ago when Kelly Leach proposed the Canadian values test and before it

00:02:22.980 went out into the field before people were asked their thoughts on it I said this is going to be

00:02:26.680 something that gets 75 percent support and I was wrong it was much higher than that there was a poll

00:02:32.420 done by CBC that put it at something like 85 percent it was wild I mean you rarely get unity on an

00:02:38.560 issue like that as much as they got on the Canadian values test and you looked at what people were

00:02:42.860 saying and they were basically saying look we're happy with people coming to Canada I mean it's what's

00:02:47.140 been happening since the country was founded and many people coming to Canada proportionate to the size

00:02:52.640 of our country proportional to the number of immigrants and refugees other countries accept

00:02:56.500 but if you're coming we want to make sure we're all on the same team that people are integrated that

00:03:01.840 we're working together we're getting along and we have more or less the same values and I see that in

00:03:07.720 that CBC poll that has just come out 57 percent of people saying they want fewer refugees I think

00:03:13.720 if they felt the broad Canadian public that we could sort of talk more openly about these issues

00:03:19.480 and our concerns about integration and getting people on the same page then maybe they'd say well

00:03:23.980 I'm fine with the number or you want to bring in 5,000 or 10,000 more this yeah okay fine whatever

00:03:28.240 because they would feel that yes integration is happening and we're all going to be part of the

00:03:32.880 Canadian fabric together but because when those issues of Canadian values were brought up because

00:03:37.740 Kelly Leach was was vilified and and really driven out of politics other people who have these views

00:03:43.800 the majority of people as we've just established well they clam up and they go I can't say this stuff

00:03:48.800 as well so then a microphone's put in front of them and they say you want more refugees or you want

00:03:53.060 fewer and they go okay well I can't talk about the integration thing okay fewer just just shut down the

00:03:59.300 doors don't bring anyone else in because they're not allowed to talk about basically a quality

00:04:05.240 factor what what type of refugee you're getting how you deal with people once they're here they can 1.00

00:04:10.320 only talk about quantity and they're only pushed to saying more more more and I think more more more

00:04:16.740 is also probably the frame we're going to hear in the coming months both in how people talk about

00:04:21.760 the issue the way that people who are are pushing for basically quasi open borders matters like the

00:04:28.120 wild stuff you hear at the democratic presidential nomination to be debates are saying you've got

00:04:33.560 that going on and then you've got people who are critical of it who are saying I don't know let's

00:04:38.220 talk about this more more more but from a way of reducing these numbers or dealing with the

00:04:43.200 integration I think the responsible way is just have that conversation so I don't really think people

00:04:49.260 are all that far off yes Canada is a country of immigrants yes we're pretty welcoming so let's just

00:04:54.440 keep it that way and make sure we can ensure the quality of the system you better believe this is

00:05:00.140 going to be one of the number one issues in the election is October and it's vitally important we get it right

Juno News - July 03, 2019

Vetting and integrating immigrants will be an election issue

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