New comers to Toronto: 'I think what we owe those people is fairness' - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
Comments made by the Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty today, when asked by about Immigration in Toronto:
QUESTION: Premier, some comments have been made in the race for mayor that the City of Toronto should close its doors to immigrants because it has enough trouble taking care of the 2.5 million people who live here. Do you think that’s a very Canadian comment?
PREMIER MCGUINTY: Well, let me just say this. There are a group of people who’ve arrived in a boat on the west coast. I think we should ask ourselves what it is that we owe these people. They’re coming here because they despair for their future and the future of their children, in their home country.
And they come here with a sense of hope, because they believe that they might find an opportunity here. I think what we owe them is to receive them with open hearts and open minds. It’s been said that there may be some people there who are dangerous to us, and that may be so. But I don’t think we should approach this with any bias, presumptions, assumptions or prejudices. I think what we owe those people is fairness.
And if there are mischief-makers or dangerous people there, we will find them out and we will deal with them appropriately. But again, I think our mindset when it comes to these kinds of things is to approach those folks in a Canadian way. Just something else that I would ask you to ask yourself and all of us to ask ourselves, is: how far back do we have to go, when we consider our parents, some of us here, our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, who were received in that Canadian way, that is, with open hearts and open minds. Something to add. We are blessed with 120,000 new Canadians every year in this province.
We are the leading receiver of new Canadians, and I am very proud to say that. And, with time and with opportunity, if you take a look at what happens to those families, with time and with opportunity, they are some of our very best students, some of our very best politicians, some of our very best professionals, some of our very best folks in the arts and sports and all the sectors. So let’s understand who we are, and we approach these things with open hearts and open minds.
4 Comments
Well spoken Premier Dalton McGuinty. That Ontario receives 120,000 of the annual intake of the required 250,000 of that national figure that is believe to be necessary to keep the economy going speaks for the magnetism of the State itself. Mature, plural and enlightened approaches such as yours can well be one reason why they head here. I am with you they will end up - as those from their original country of origin recently arrived and proved - to be "some of our best students, professionals and best folks in all sectors"
Canada does not have to labour proving her credo of
"celebrating diversity" to the world. Your courageous voice in sensitive times alone is loud and clear Canada will honour all her obligations.
ISS
What a brilliant answer by Premier Dalton McGuinty. Then we also have others making statements calling these peopl names like, terrorists, queue jumpers, human smugglers and illegal unwanteds etc.
I hope all these people making unintelligent statements at least try to understand what Dalton McGuinty is trying to say. Because there is no gurantee that those unintelligent people have what it takes to comprehend Dalton McGuinty's answer.
The Tamil Boat refugees.
This is an Anti-Tamil xenophobia which created by Sri Lanka government !
80% of commentators who reply to the newspaper articles on internet are the Sri Lanka Government agents.
We should protect the honorable Tamil people and not let the Sri Lankan Racists to pour dirt on Tamil heads.
The Canadians are gullible and they trust the Sri Lanka High Commissioner statement on BBC that :“ All Tamil refugees are criminals “
She called on Canadian Government to turn the boat away
Anti Tamil Propaganda by GOSL ??
Get Real !!
THe GOSL need not bother to do anything. The Tamils of Canada completely unaided and completely independently managed to alienate themselves from the general populace by their antics last year. If you think that type of action serves to endear you to Canadians, well, you can see that it clearly does not
Instead of acting like civilised human beings, the Canadian Tamils ran amok.
Now the chickens have come home to roost - fully 63% of Canadians don't want these people here under these circumstances.
Canadian Tamils have no one to blame but themselves... and the Boat people have no one to blame except the Canadian Tamils and organizations like the Tamil COngress