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Monday January 24, 2005 |
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Media,
immigration and pizza
by Angelo Persichilli
(Versione italiana)
THE HILL TIMES
There are many immigration
problems in Canada: among them, gutless politicians squeezed between an
idealistic judicial system out of touch with daily reality and some “fast
journalism.” Jeffrey Simpson exposed very well in his column last Tuesday in
The Globe and Mail
why Harjit Singh has
been able to live and work in Canada without receiving his visa. It has to
do with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protects not just Canadian
citizens, but all the people living on Canadian soil, “including tourists,”
as the new Minister of Immigration Joe Volpe told
Corriere Canadese
the day after his new appointment
on Jan. 14.
In fact, Singh
entered Canada 16 years ago on a tourist visa and he immediately claimed
refugee status: he is still here battling the system.
Since he arrived
as a tourist, there have been eight ministers of immigration, if I remember
correctly: Barbara McDougall, Bernard Valcourt, Sergio Marchi, Lucienne
Robillard, Elinor Caplan, Denis Coderre, Judy Sgro and now Joe Volpe.
We’ve also had
four prime ministers belonging to both the Conservative and Liberal parties:
Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell, Jean Chrétien and now Paul Martin.
Clearly, even if
this is a political problem, it’s definitely not a partisan one. If the
judicial system systematically overrules the politicians and the
bureaucrats, there is not much you can do.
Then come the
media.
Just take a close
look at the events that led to the resignation of former minister of
Immigration Judy Sgro and what happened immediately after.
On Jan. 14 there
was a Toronto Star
story with the
headline: “Sgro to resign—affidavit says minister promised aid in return for
pizza. ”The Paper, which broke the story, reported almost in its entirety an
“affidavit” from Singh without personal background.
Sgro resigns that
day.
The day after, on
Jan. 15, the same paper,
The Toronto Star,
runs another story, with the
headline, “Accuser a fraud artist—Singh, 3 children took part in $1M credit
card scam.” The question is: did they have that information the day before?
If the answer is negative, would Ms. Sgro still be minister of Immigration
had the Star
made the proper research on
the subject 24 hours earlier and published them together? But heh, who
cares? The media have a designated victim of the day and day after day,
other papers jump in and pile on.
But they don’t
really attack the real issue at hand: the fact we have huge problems in
immigration in Canada.
Nope, we in the
media, stick to the frivolous and the allegations.
The Globe and Mail,
in the middle of all of the
pizzas and ballerinas
telenovela, instead of
looking at the immigration problems that are affecting thousands of human
beings, on Jan. 15 came out with another story: “Downfall politically
motivated, minister says.” Basically, the paper said, it was minister Joe
Volpe, Sgro’s successor, who engineered her resignation.Why did the paper
reach that conclusion? Because the former minister said, and this is the
real scoop, “Everybody wants into Cabinet.”The fact that Volpe is already in
Cabinet with a senior portfolio, means nothing.
And the story
goes on with a statement from Sgro: “If they see you with the slightest bit
of a problem, there are always people who think they have a chance at
getting your job, who will even assist the opposition.” There’s no mention
of Volpe in the quote.
But there is
more: “While Ms. Sgro declined to name names, her rivalry with Joe Volpe,
the man who succeeded her as Immigration Minister, has been an open secret
within the party.” Still no mention from Sgro about Volpe.
But wait, here
comes the clincher that nails Volpe: “In an interview with
The Globe and Mail
before Christmas,” wrote the
Globe, “Ms. Sgro said that Mr. Volpe ‘wanted her job.’” Let’s read it
carefully again: the quote from Sgro is that Volpe “wanted her job.” Is this
a quote from Ms. Sgro, or from
The Globe and Mail?
Unless Ms. Sgro talks in the
third person like the Pope and the Queen, there is no quote from Ms. Sgro.
The end result is
that Minister Joe Volpe, instead of looking at the complex file of
immigration, has to spend time talking about an unsubstantiated allegation
about who wants the job of immigration minister and who forced Ms. Sgro out.
The fact that
Judy Sgro denies having ever accused Volpe, and the fact that Volpe defends
his predecessor, means nothing to them.
In fact, while
some media try to embarrass Volpe accusing him of being behind Sgro’s
demise, others are trying to embarrass the same minister because he went too
far to defend her.
Volpe told CTV’s
Question Period
that the allegations from
Singh appear to be “spurious” and “unreliable.” According to some
journalists, he has compromised the integrity of the judicial system
expressing an opinion on the matter.
Volpe said he was
just making comments on some stories that appeared in the media: “Accuser is
a fraud artist,” was the headline of
The Toronto Star.
But, again, instead of looking at
the real file of immigration, the new minister had to spend time talking
about fringe issues based on hearsy and innuendo.
Furthermore,
Minister Volpe is not the one who has to judge Singh; in fact, his
department made up its mind on this person many years ago and the
Immigration Department has to go to court to defend its decision to deport
him.
However, the real
scoop on this matter came from the
Toronto Sun
on Jan. 19.
“Did Sgro declare
pizza?” was the concerned headline.
Now they got it!
This is why Canada has problems with immigration.The
Sun
made a check on Sgro’s election
campaign donations listed on the Elections Canada website and said she
“fails to show any donations by Harjit Singh or his business, Pizza Market.”
Can you imagine? There are 700,000 people knocking at our door wanting to
get into Canada for years and we are unable to deal with them.We have
Canadian companies starving for manpower and we have thousands of people
living illegally in Canada doing legal work; our frontiers are so porous
that we let in criminals who have been deported many times already and yet
we’re making our borders more welcoming than the revolving doors of the
Royal York Hotel.We have thousands of phony refugee claimants clogging our
system while people who need real help are turned away; not to mention the
threat of terrorism and the control over members of international organized
crime.
But who cares:
first let’s find out if Volpe wanted the new job and if Ms. Sgro paid for
the pizza. |
