{"id":6145,"date":"2015-11-20T18:27:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T23:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=6145"},"modified":"2018-08-24T14:59:01","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T18:59:01","slug":"friday-november-20-2015-a-letter-to-my-member-of-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=6145","title":{"rendered":"Friday, November 20, 2015 \u2014 A Letter to My Member of Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just sent this let\u00adter to my Mem\u00adber of Parliament:<\/span><\/p>\n

To Hon. Bill Morneau, House of Com\u00admons, Ottawa, Ontario Cana\u00adda K1A<\/span> 0A6<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The events in France make it per\u00adfect\u00adly clear what kind of thing the Syr\u00adi\u00adan refugees are flee\u00ading from. Your par\u00adty won the recent elec\u00adtion with a man\u00addate to accept more Syr\u00adi\u00adan refugees and increase our par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpa\u00adtion in this crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As my Mem\u00adber of Par\u00adlia\u00adment, I urge you to stand up in that leg\u00adisla\u00adtive body and pro\u00adpose that we TRIPLE<\/span> THE<\/span> RECENTLY<\/span> ANNOUNCED<\/span> NUMBER<\/span><\/i> that we will com\u00admit our\u00adselves to accept.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The recent gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion of Cana\u00addi\u00adan politi\u00adcians \u2014 espe\u00adcial\u00adly those in the Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive Par\u00adty \u2014 have fall\u00aden com\u00adplete\u00adly out of touch with Canada\u2019s his\u00adto\u00adry and tra\u00addi\u00adtions. They have grotesque\u00adly trans\u00adformed our immi\u00adgra\u00adtion pol\u00adi\u00adcy into a rack\u00adet where we sell Cana\u00addi\u00adan cit\u00adi\u00adzen\u00adship to the rich of the world, giv\u00ading a safe place for them to park their assets. Such peo\u00adple will nev\u00ader see Cana\u00adda as any\u00adthing except a con\u00adve\u00adnient pied-\u00e0-terre<\/em><\/span>, or a sort of tax-dodge-with-a-pass\u00adport. Those aren\u2019t the kind of peo\u00adple that built Cana\u00adda. We are a nation built by offer\u00ading a home and a sec\u00adond chance to the poor and oppressed of oth\u00ader lands. That should be our pride, our glory.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We are a wealthy, under\u00adpop\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded coun\u00adtry. We can eas\u00adi\u00adly afford to take in triple the amount pro\u00adposed by Mr. Trudeau. Think of it as \u201cinfra\u00adstruc\u00adture invest\u00adment\u201d. The real kind.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
-<\/span><\/div>\n
Phil Paine, Toronto<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Bring\u00ading in large num\u00adbers of refugees from for\u00adeign lands, often with lan\u00adguages, cus\u00adtoms and reli\u00adgions that we find exot\u00adic, many of them trau\u00adma\u00adtized by ter\u00adror and war, and with the dis\u00adtinct pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty that there will be some bad apples among them (plant\u00aded agents, crim\u00adi\u00adnals, faked iden\u00adti\u00adties) is noth\u00ading new to Cana\u00addi\u00adans. We have done this over and over and over again in this coun\u00adtry. Scots flee\u00ading the bru\u00adtal high\u00adland clear\u00adances, the six Iro\u00adquois Nations flee\u00ading eth\u00adnic cleans\u00ading, African-Amer\u00adi\u00adcans escap\u00ading slav\u00adery through the Under\u00adground Rail\u00adroad, Irish peas\u00adants flee\u00ading the pota\u00adto famine, Arme\u00adni\u00adans flee\u00ading mass killings, Ukraini\u00adans flee\u00ading Stal\u00adin\u2019s ter\u00adror, Jews flee\u00ading the Holo\u00adcaust, Hun\u00adgar\u00adi\u00adans flee\u00ading the Com\u00admu\u00adnists, African Gujaratis flee\u00ading Idi Amin, Viet\u00adnamese boat peo\u00adple, Sri Lankan Tamils flee\u00ading civ\u00adil war, Rwan\u00addans flee\u00ading eth\u00adnic slaugh\u00adter.\u2026 peas\u00adants and slumd\u00adwellers from around the world flee\u00ading pover\u00adty and sta\u00adt\u00adic soci\u00adeties that keep them at the bot\u00adtom. Yes, there are costs and dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties involved in tak\u00ading in strangers in this way. But we know how to do it, prob\u00ada\u00adbly bet\u00adter than any\u00adone in the world. It\u2019s our spe\u00adcial\u00adty. This time is no dif\u00adfer\u00adent. <\/em>Years ago, I saw my neigh\u00adbours roll up their sleeves and vol\u00adun\u00adteer to wel\u00adcome, spon\u00adsor, house, and help fright\u00adened boat peo\u00adple who arrived after weeks on flim\u00adsy rafts, being attacked by pirates, then months in grue\u00adsome intern\u00adment camps. Now those for\u00admer refugees are fel\u00adlow Cana\u00addi\u00adans we point to with pride, and they in turn vol\u00adun\u00adteer for the same task. Yes\u00adter\u00adday, a Toron\u00adto cou\u00adple were mar\u00adried cheap\u00adly at City Hall, and turned over the full cost of their planned fan\u00adcy wed\u00adding to spon\u00adsor Syr\u00adi\u00adan refugees. They, and oth\u00aders like them, are the spir\u00adit of our coun\u00adtry. We must nev\u00ader for\u00adget this.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

As a his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan, I sel\u00addom read the news with\u00adout hear\u00ading echos from the past. Here a quote from a his\u00adto\u00adry of Irish immi\u00adgrants to Cana\u00adda, flee\u00ading the pota\u00adto famine:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"15-11-20<\/a>Shocked by the num\u00adbers flood\u00ading Boston, New York and oth\u00ader ports, the Unit\u00aded States Con\u00adgress passed two Pas\u00adsen\u00adger Acts. One lim\u00adit\u00aded the num\u00adber of pas\u00adsen\u00adgers a ves\u00adsel was per\u00admit\u00adted to car\u00adry. The oth\u00ader increased the price of the cheap\u00adest pas\u00adsage to sev\u00aden pounds, an amount that was well beyond what most poor Irish could afford. Start\u00ading in May of 1846, this result\u00aded in increased traf\u00adfic to Cana\u00addi\u00adan ports. In fact, dur\u00ading one occa\u00adsion, Grosse Isle<\/em> [the immi\u00adgrant pro\u00adcess\u00ading point in Que\u00adbec] had a line of 40 ships, car\u00adry\u00ading 15,000 souls, wait\u00ading to land there. Of that num\u00adber, many were seri\u00adous\u00adly ill with fever and some were already dead.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

This cre\u00adat\u00aded thou\u00adsands of orphans, most of whom were assigned to Cana\u00addi\u00adan fam\u00adi\u00adlies. A spe\u00adcial decree ruled that these chil\u00addren, to be raised in French-speak\u00ading Cana\u00addi\u00adan fam\u00adi\u00adlies, would retain their Irish names out of respect for their her\u00aditage. Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive news\u00adpa\u00adpers and the Orange Lodge \u2014 influ\u00aden\u00adtial in Cana\u00addi\u00adan pol\u00adi\u00adtics and high soci\u00adety \u2014 screamed that these refugees would all be nasty, bomb-throw\u00ading Catholic ter\u00adror\u00adists, and that the streets of Mon\u00adtre\u00adal and Toron\u00adto would be seething with ape-like, sub-human Irish crim\u00adi\u00adnals. Those orphaned Irish names \u2014 Riley, Kel\u00adly, Ryan, John\u00adson\u2026 now resound in Cana\u00addi\u00adan his\u00adto\u00adry and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sound famil\u00adiar? Here\u2019s the lat\u00adest news from the Unit\u00aded States:<\/span><\/p>\n

While Democ\u00adrats ini\u00adtial\u00adly stood up to Repub\u00adli\u00adcan fear-mon\u00adger\u00ading and big\u00adotry, too many of them lost that con\u00advic\u00adtion on the final vote for a bill that cre\u00adates addi\u00adtion\u00adal bar\u00adri\u00aders for Syr\u00adi\u00adan and Iraqi refugees com\u00ading to the U.S. Forty-sev\u00aden Democ\u00adrats vot\u00aded with Repub\u00adli\u00adcans in a final vote of 289\u2013137.
\n<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The same ass\u00adholes are always around. We have such ass\u00adholes in Cana\u00adda, but, hope\u00adful\u00adly, few\u00ader of them. At least we don\u2019t have, as Amer\u00adi\u00adcans do, the major\u00adi\u00adty of our politi\u00adcians falling over them\u00adselves to sup\u00adport ISIS<\/span>. The Syr\u00adi\u00adan and Iraqi refugees turned away by the tri\u00adumph of the stu\u00adpid in the U.S.A. should be wel\u00adcomed to Cana\u00adda with open arms. And we will end up all the wealth\u00adi\u00ader, hap\u00adpi\u00ader, and wis\u00ader for it \u2014 for we are the future, not the past.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just sent this let\u00adter to my Mem\u00adber of Par\u00adlia\u00adment: To Hon. Bill Morneau, House of Com\u00admons, Ottawa, Ontario Cana\u00adda K1A<\/span> 0A6<\/span> The events in France make it per\u00adfect\u00adly clear what kind of thing the Syr\u00adi\u00adan refugees are flee\u00ading from. Your party \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[1100,1294,1296,1295,1293,1290,1297],"class_list":["post-6145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-al-blog-2015","tag-bill-morneau","tag-grosse-isle","tag-irish-in-canada","tag-irish-potato-famine","tag-refugees-in-canada","tag-syrian-refugees","tag-syrians-in-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6145"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7441,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6145\/revisions\/7441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}