Lisée: Identité canadienne, après l’éclipse [change of emphasis and tone, citizenship ceremonies]

2025/03/20 Leave a comment

Lisée also notes Poilievre’s commitment to restore in person citizenship ceremonies, a welcome change given that the vast majority are virtual:

….Poilievre a dégainé le premier, dans son discours de refondation de ses thèmes électoraux, le 15 février, sous le slogan « Canada d’abord ». Il fut question de pipelines et de baisses d’impôt, mais pas seulement de ça. Il a annoncé la fin de « la guerre contre notre histoire », en particulier la guerre contre le fondateur du pays, John A. Macdonald, qui a eu le grand mérite d’être conservateur. Son successeur, s’il est élu, veut « renforcer les sanctions contre ceux qui détruisent ou dégradent nos symboles ». Il annonce aussi le retour des héros et des symboles canadiens sur les pages de notre passeport, évincés comme on le sait par l’équipe postnationale de Justin.

Il peste, avec raison, contre l’introduction par le désormais ancien régime de cérémonies d’assermentation à la citoyenneté à distance. Non seulement il rétablira l’obligation de se présenter en personne, mais il ajoutera un passage au serment. Le voici : « Je témoigne ma gratitude à ceux qui ont travaillé, se sont sacrifiés et ont donné leur vie pour défendre la liberté dont je me réjouis aujourd’hui et pour bâtir le pays que j’appelle maintenant mon chez-moi. Comme eux, je m’engage à remplir mes devoirs de citoyen canadien. »

Pour mémoire, car c’est difficile d’y croire, le serment actuel est : « Je jure que je serai fidèle et porterai sincère allégeance à Sa Majesté le roi Charles III, roi du Canada, à ses héritiers et successeurs ; que j’observerai fidèlement les lois du Canada, y compris la Constitution, qui reconnaît et confirme les droits ancestraux ou issus de traités des Premières Nations, des Inuits et des Métis, et que je remplirai loyalement mes obligations de citoyen canadien. »

Avouez que cette simple lecture fait douter de l’existence d’une identité canadienne, du moins autre qu’indigène et royale.

Mark Carney n’a pas voulu être en reste. Dès son premier jour, il a créé un ministère de l’Identité canadienne. Pour un pays qui n’en avait officiellement aucune la veille, la chose est immense. Parmi ses premiers mots prononcés, notre nouveau chef de gouvernement a affirmé que « notre identité bilingue et la langue française enrichissent notre culture », car le Canada est « un pays construit sur le roc de trois peuples : indigène, français et britannique ». Le mot « multiculturalisme » ne fut pas prononcé. C’est à peine si fut mentionnée, au passage, la diversité. On sent donc une réelle volonté de se recentrer sur les fondamentaux. D’autant que Carney a de suite pris l’avion vers les trois pôles identitaires désignés : Paris, Londres et Iqaluit.

Mais à part nous annoncer que nous avons désormais une « identité bilingue », en quoi consiste celle-ci ? Il a choisi un Québécois, Steven Guilbeault, pour chapeauter le nouveau ministère, qui n’a pas dans son intitulé la responsabilité des langues officielles, mais qui y gagne au change, car il obtient la gestion des parcs du Canada. Le lien avec l’identité vous échappe ? Pas au premier ministre, qui explique que « la question de l’identité canadienne est beaucoup plus large que seulement les langues officielles. C’est beaucoup plus que notre héritage. Nous construisons l’identité canadienne, et c’est vraiment la clé ». Oui, car, dit-il, elle « inclut la nature ». Le ministre Guilbeault est chargé de « mettre ensemble toutes les responsabilités qui concernent la nature, les océans, la biodiversité, et de s’assurer que toutes ces choses sont protégées et promues ».

Résumons. Notre identité est bilingue, assise sur un roc, alliage de riches veines françaises, britanniques et indigènes, mais inclut la nature, les océans et la biodiversité. Cela fait un peu bouillabaisse, convenons-en. Mais on campe résolument dans l’anti-postmoderne, ce qui est archinouveau, non ? Reste à insérer le tout dans le serment.

On sent que Steven Guilbeault va bientôt s’ennuyer d’un dossier bien plus simple : rendre vert un pays producteur de pétrole.

Source: Identité canadienne, après l’éclipse

…. Poilievre drew the first, in his speech of refoundation of his electoral themes, on February 15, under the slogan “Canada first”. There was talk of pipelines and tax cuts, but not only that. He announced the end of “the war against our history”, in particular the war against the founder of the country, John A. McDonald’s, who had the great merit of being conservative. His successor, if elected, wants to “strengthen sanctions against those who destroy or degrade our symbols”. He also announces the return of Canadian heroes and symbols on the pages of our passport, ousted as we know by Justin’s post-national team.

He rightly plagues against the introduction by the now old regime of ceremonies of oathing to remote citizenship. Not only will he reinstate the obligation to appear in person, but he will add a passage to the oath. Here it is: “I express my gratitude to those who worked, sacrificed themselves and gave their lives to defend the freedom I look forward to today and to build the country that I now call my home. Like them, I am committed to fulfilling my duties as a Canadian citizen. ”

For the record, because it is hard to believe, the current oath is: “I swear that I will be faithful and pledge sincere allegiance to His Majesty King Charles III, King of Canada, to his heirs and successors; that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada, including the Constitution, which recognizes and confirms the ancestral or treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis, and that I will faithfully fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen. ”

Admit that this simple reading makes us doubt the existence of a Canadian identity, at least other than indigenous and royal.

Mark Carney didn’t want to be left behind. From his first day, he created a Canadian Ministry of Identity. For a country that officially had none the day before, the thing is immense. Among his first words, our new head of government said that “our bilingual identity and the French language enrich our culture”, because Canada is “a country built on the rock of three peoples: indigenous, French and British”. The word “multiculturalism” was not pronounced. It is hardly if diversity was mentioned, in passing. We therefore feel a real desire to refocus on the fundamentals. Especially since Carney immediately flew to the three designated identity poles: Paris, London and Iqaluit.

But apart from announcing that we now have a “bilingual identity”, what does it consist of? He chose a Quebecer, Steven Guilbeault, to oversee the new ministry, which does not have responsibility for official languages in its title, but which wins in exchange, because it obtains the management of Canada’s parks. Does the link with identity escape you? Not to the Prime Minister, who explains that “the issue of Canadian identity is much broader than just official languages. It’s much more than our legacy. We’re building Canadian identity, and that’s really the key.” Yes, because, he says, it “includes nature”. Minister Guilbeault is responsible for “putting together all the responsibilities that concern nature, the oceans, biodiversity, and ensuring that all these things are protected and promoted”.

Let’s summarize. Our identity is bilingual, sitting on a rock, an alloy of rich French, British and indigenous veins, but includes nature, oceans and biodiversity. It’s a little bouillabaisse, let’s agree. But we camp resolutely in the anti-postmodern, which is arch-new, right? It remains to insert everything into the oath.

We feel that Steven Guilbeault will soon get bored of a much simpler file: making an oil-producing country green.

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , , , ,

Poilievre suggests capping immigration at Harper-era levels, deportations for wrongdoers

2025/02/15 Leave a comment

Back to Kenney-era levels, about half of current levels (no specific mention of levels of temporary workers and international students). Unclear whether the provinces would accept such a major reduction but good to have Poilievre provide specific numbers.

Ramping up deportations will be more challenging than a “deport bogus refugees” or “deport hate” slogans:

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has confirmed his plans to reduce immigration levels to Stephen Harper-era levels and deport those who break Canada’s laws while on temporary visas, in an exclusive interview with Juno News co-founder Candice Malcolm.

Juno News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

On the broader issue of immigration levels, Poilievre stated that the current annual intake of permanent residents — set to reach 500,000 in 2025 — is unsustainable and has contributed to Canada’s housing crisis.

He proposed a return to the levels of previous Conservative governments, around 200,000 to 250,000 per year, aligning population growth with the number of new homes being built.

“It would be a lot more like the Harper numbers that were basically the same for 40 years before Trudeau took office — we were bringing in about 200,000 to 250,000 a year,” said Poilievre.

“We were building about the same number of homes as we were adding people, so we had a housing surplus. I would bring in a simple mathematical formula: we cannot bring in people faster than we add houses.”

According to Poilievre, the formula would be based on the homebuilding numbers from the prior year as well as population growth targets.

“I would actually make sure that we’re building housing surpluses over the next four years because that’s how we close the gap that has built up,” said Poilievre.

Poilievre also made it clear that his government would swiftly deport non-citizens who commit crimes while in Canada on temporary status. He emphasized that those engaging in violent acts, such as firebombing businesses or places of worship, should be immediately arrested and deported.

“I don’t know how anybody can disagree with that. If someone shows up in our country claiming to be a student or a temporary worker and they start firebombing coffee shops, bakeries, synagogues, or any other place, then they need to be immediately arrested and deported,” said Poilievre in reference to recent pro-Hamas protests rocking Canada.

“If someone is obviously a citizen, they should be prosecuted through our legal system and put in prison here in Canada for those sorts of crimes.”

Poilievre added the federal government also has to take the issue of illegal immigration seriously and expedite deportations for those found to be in Canada under false pretences.

“If someone comes in, makes a false asylum claim, and it gets rejected, they’re supposed to leave today,” said Poilievre.

“The challenge we’re going to face is that under nine years of the Carney-Trudeau Liberals’ open border policies, we now have millions of people whose permits are going to expire over the next two years. If they don’t leave, we have a very hard time even knowing they’re still here, finding them, and then carrying out a deportation.”

The Conservative leader, however, did indicate that among illegal immigrants there were “some among them that we do want to keep.”

“They could be a master’s graduate in computer engineering with a six-figure job in Kitchener-Waterloo, someone who has started a family, integrated, speaks the language. This is someone we want to keep,” said Poilievre.

“But we need to be able to make that decision ourselves through selection based on these criteria — not just by accident because people who are not eligible to stay decide they’re not going to leave.”

According to Poilievre, the Canadian government should implement further refugee reviews for claims, including what he calls a “last in, first out” approach.

“This is how it works: if you’re the last person to enter the country, your claim is immediately heard. Within a couple of weeks, if your claim is false, you’re sent back. What that does is send the signal to everyone who might come in the future that they’re going to be sent home automatically,” said Poilievre.

“The problem right now is that if someone gets in illegally — even if they’re not a real refugee, they’re not fleeing danger — they have seven or eight years of appeals, during which we’re paying for their hotels, lawyers, food, and healthcare, above and beyond what Canadians get.”

Source: Poilievre suggests capping immigration at Harper-era levels, deportations for wrongdoers

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Trump signs executive order to cancel student visas of ‘Hamas sympathizers’ who protested Israel’s war in Gaza

2025/01/31 Leave a comment

Already prompting similar calls in Canada, we article on Poilievre comments below:

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order promising “immediate action” from federal law enforcement against noncitizen college students and others in the United States who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations during Israel’s war in Gaza.

The president has pledged to “deport” all “resident aliens” who joined protests, Trump said in a White House fact sheet.

“Come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” he vowed.

Trump also pledged to “quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before,” he claimed.

The Department of Justice will “aggressively” prosecute what it characterizes as “terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews” after “the explosion of antisemitism” on college campuses in the wake of Israel’s campaign, according to the White House.

“It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence,” the executive order states.

As The Independent has reported, both antisemitism and Islamophobic threats and violence surged after Hamas invaded Israel in 2023, kicking off the war in Gaza and widespread protests on U.S. campuses.

Under the order, government agencies have 60 days to produce a report “identifying all civil and criminal authorities or actions” to “curb or combat” antisemitism, with an inventory of complaints “against or involving” antisemitism in colleges and universities.

The U.S. Attorney General is “encouraged to employ appropriate civil rights enforcement authorities” to combat antisemitism, the order states.

Source: Trump signs executive order to cancel student visas of ‘Hamas sympathizers’ who protested Israel’s war in Gaza

Meanwhile in Canada:

FIRST READING: As anti-Israel rallies continue unabated, Poilievre calls for deportations

We see on our own streets antisemitism guided by obscene woke ideologies that have led to an explosion in hate crimes,” Poilievre said in a brief address at the official Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in Ottawa.

He then added, “we must not just condemn these things, we must take action against them.”

“We must deport from our country any temporary resident that is here on a permit or a visa that is carrying out violence or hate crimes on our soil.”

Ever since the October 7 Hamas-led terrorist attacks against Israel, Canada has been hit by hundreds of anti-Israel rallies, blockades, and other actions — many of them organized by a handful of openly anti-Zionist groups including Toronto4Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and student groups such as McGill University’s Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance.

Some of the rallies were initially celebratory, but they quickly shifted to calls for “ceasefire,” often with the claim that Israel was committing genocide.

Now that a Gazan ceasefire has been in place since Jan. 19, rallies have continued unabated, often with calls for Palestinian “resistance” to continue until Israel’s complete destruction.

“The fight isn’t over. In fact, it has just begun,” Toronto4Palestine

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , , ,

Clark: The return of Trump has Poilievre talking about a crackdown beyond the U.S. border

2024/12/04 Leave a comment

Of note:

…On Sunday, he called for a crackdown on people coming to Canada – tightening visa requirements to make it harder to visit and setting a cap on the number of asylum-seekers.

For a long time, Mr. Poilievre didn’t go there. His party wanted MPs and candidates to steer clear of anything that suggested tough talk on immigration. It’s only in the last few months that Mr. Poilievre has ramped up criticism of the Liberal government’s failure to control a surge of temporary residents.

Now, he’s talking about cracking down on “false refugees” and warning “our Canadian jobs are being taken.”

“I think it is time for a cap. And it is time to get rid of all of the abuse,” Mr. Poilievre said in his press conference on Sunday.

He added: “We need to shut off the flow of false refugee claims who are in no danger in their country of origin but are sneaking in either through our porous border or our weak visa system, and when they land here making a false claim.”

That’s the kind of lexicon Mr. Poilievre had kept from his lips for a long time, and on an issue that wasn’t in the repertoire of attacks against the government in the Commons until November….

Source: The return of Trump has Poilievre talking about a crackdown beyond the U.S. border

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , , ,

Poilievre calls for asylum seeker cap, border plan as U.S. tariff threat looms

2024/12/03 Leave a comment

Former minister Kenney used the terms “bogus claimants” vs bonafide, Poilievre uses the term those who lie:

With gridlock in Parliament set to continue, Poilievre said Conservatives “will make accommodations to quickly pass a border plan if it goes towards fixing Trudeau’s broken border.”

He said Canada should also cap the number of asylum seekers as it faces a significant influx in refugee claims.

Canada had nearly 250,000 refugee claims in the queue as of Sept. 30, 2024, having approved more than 33,000 claims between January and the end of September.

In all of 2023, Canada accepted 37,000 refugee claims, and in 2022, it accepted 28,000.

“I love real refugees,” Poilievre said. “Our country was built in large part by real refugees who were genuinely fleeing danger, like my wife. But I have no time for people who lie to come into our country, and that is the problem we have to cut off.”

Source: Poilievre calls for asylum seeker cap, border plan as U.S. tariff threat looms

Filed under Immigration, Refugees Tagged with , ,

Trudeau says he could have acted faster on immigration changes, blames ‘bad actors’

2024/11/19 Leave a comment

Apart from the largely dodging responsibility by the PM, Conservative leader Poilievre comments of note:

….When reached for comment, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s spokesperson Sebastian Skamski referred The Canadian Press to an interview Mr. Poilievre did with CKNW 980’s The Jas Johal Show in Vancouver where Mr. Poilievre discussed immigration.

In that interview, Mr. Poilievre said much of his criticism of the current immigration system is coming from what Mr. Trudeau himself has said since enacting these recent changes.

“Now, he’s basically denouncing his entire immigration policy and expecting us to believe that he can fix the problems that he caused,” Mr. Poilievre said.

“The bottom line is we have to fix our immigration, get back to the best system in the world, the one that brought my wife here as a refugee legally and lawfully, the one that brought so many people here to pursue the Canadian promise and that’s what I’m going to do as prime minister.”

Mr. Poilievre has previously said he would tie immigration rates to available housing while considering other factors such as access to health care and jobs….

Source: Trudeau says he could have acted faster on immigration changes, blames ‘bad actors’

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

LILLEY: Poilievre promises to cap immigration, tie it to housing

2024/09/13 Leave a comment

The devil, as in all areas of policy, and particularly in immigration and citizenship policy, will lie in the details and how a Conservative government deals with pressures from the business community and provincial governments:

Part of Pierre Poilievre’s plan to deal with Canada’s housing crisis will be to cap immigration. The Conservative leader said if he wins the next election, he’ll bring sanity back to Canada’s immigration system.

Poilievre was speaking with reporters ahead of Parliament’s return from the summer break. He said that when MPs return to Ottawa next Monday, he will try and defeat the government and force an election as soon as possible.

If he wins the election, he promises across-the-board changes on immigration.

“We will cap population growth so that the housing stock always grows faster than the population,” Poilievre said.

In the middle of a housing crisis, at a time when we are bringing in more than 1 million people per year, his statement sounds like common sense. While Poilievre said exact numbers would come before the next election, he said this policy idea is really about math, not immigration.

“We’re building like 240,000 homes, that’s like a 1.4% increase in our housing supply. You can’t grow the population faster than that, unless you’re going to have worse housing shortages,” he said.

“Under Trudeau and the NDP, we’ve been growing the population by almost 3%, but we grow the housing stock by 1.4%. No wonder we’re running out of homes.”

He also said he’d scale back the international student program.

“We’re going to bring home the international student system we had before Justin Trudeau. Which was a modest number of young people who were extremely promising could come here and study, and if they excel, they followed the law, they learned English or French, they could join the Canadian family,” Poilievre said.

He noted stories showing more than 20 international students living in the basement of one home in Brampton as an example of how off the rails the program has become the last few years. There were just over 350,00 foreign students in Canada when the Trudeau Liberals took over in 2015, but more than 1 million last year.

It’s not just the housing market that is also being impacted by the massive swell in immigration, both permanent and temporary. The most recent unemployment report from Statistics Canada showed unemployment growing from 6.4% in July to 6.6% in August, and a big part of that was population growth driven by immigration.

We added 96,400 people to the working age population, meaning those 15 and older. That’s a massive number in just one month, but it’s been going on like this for the last couple of years.

While there were some new jobs added, they were mostly part-time and didn’t keep pace with population growth. There were 44,000 full-time jobs lost last month, and we added 60,000 people to the unemployment rolls.

Statistics Canada has been warning about this for more than a year, noting time and again that job growth is not keeping pace with population growth.

“Given this pace of population growth, employment growth of approximately 50,000 per month is required for the employment rate to remain constant,” the agency warned a year ago.

We haven’t been hitting those numbers, and that’s why our unemployment rate has gone from 5% to 6.6%.

“That’s not even a question of whether you support or not immigration, it’s a question of whether you support mathematics,” Poilievre said when speaking about the housing crunch, but it applies to the impact on the job market as well.

Last April, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that we were bringing in people faster than we could absorb them. Since he made those comments, we’ve added more than 500,000 people to Canada.

How does it make sense to keep immigration levels where they are when we are facing a housing shortage, a housing affordability crisis due to a lack of housing and growing unemployment.

It simply doesn’t and to carry on isn’t fair to anyone.

The Trudeau Liberals made this mess; they don’t seem to be in a hurry to fix it. Maybe it’s time to give Poilievre a turn.

Source: LILLEY: Poilievre promises to cap immigration, tie it to housing

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Lisée | Le Khmer bleu

2024/09/05 Leave a comment

Another interesting article by Lisée. May suggest BQ is concerned about apparent increase in support of Conservatives in Quebec but his points about vitriol are valid:

Lorsque Stephen Harper a pris le pouvoir en 2006, une de ses tâches les plus délicates était de maintenir l’unité d’un caucus de 124 députés. Certains des membres provenaient de l’ancien Parti conservateur, plus centriste, d’autres de l’ancien Reform Party, plus radicalement conservateur.

Le député de Nepean-Carleton, Pierre Poilievre, avait 26 ans. Il était le plus jeune député de la Chambre. Chaque mercredi au caucus conservateur, il se présentait au micro pour prêcher la bonne parole du conservatisme fiscal.

Poilievre avait des alliés. C’est que, la veille du caucus s’était réuni un groupe de députés partageant la même vision des choses, et déterminés à coordonner leur action pour contrebalancer l’influence des centristes, ces dépensiers, ces mous, ces libéraux égarés dans la grande tente de Harper. Le groupe avait débattu du nom qu’il devait se donner. Poilievre avait suggéré le « Liberty Caucus ». D’autres avaient proposé « True Blue ». Mais le député de Saskatchewan Andrew Scheer et l’Ontarienne Cheryl Gallant se disputent la paternité du nom finalement choisi : les Khmers bleus.

L’appellation est audacieuse, car elle renvoie aux Khmers rouges, les communistes cambodgiens qui ont à leur actif d’avoir torturé et assassiné plus d’un million et demi de leurs concitoyens — 25 % de la population du pays — entre 1975 et 1979. Vous me savez charitable, je conclurai donc que ce choix n’attestait pas d’une volonté d’assassiner leurs adversaires politiques. Seulement de les torturer. Je veux dire : psychologiquement. Au fond, ils exprimaient ainsi leur penchant pour l’intransigeance idéologique. C’est déjà assez chargé, merci. Détail intéressant : Maxime Bernier en était membre.

Harper était ravi de l’existence du groupe. Selon Andrew Lawton, qui raconte cet épisode dans son récent Pierre Poilievre: A Political Life (Sutherland), le premier ministre a indiqué à un des Khmers bleus que « les Red Tories et les députés québécois [deux groupes souvent indiscernables] étaient ceux qui réclamaient le plus d’attention dans les rencontres et exerçaient par conséquent une influence disproportionnée ».

Il fallait leur faire contrepoids. Un des membres du groupe, l’Albertain Rob Anders, se souvient que les rencontres produisaient chaque fois un consensus. « Puis nous nous présentions au caucus le matin suivant pour le marteler pendant les 30 secondes allouées à chaque député ». Un des Red Tories, Peter MacKay, décrit le jeune Poilievre comme un « faucon » se jetant comme sur une proie sur toute nouvelle dépense gouvernementale. Maintenant que Pierre Poilievre est dans l’antichambre du pouvoir, un trait de caractère s’impose, aiguisé par les années qui passent : l’intransigeance. Nous sommes en présence d’un homme politique volontaire, constant, d’une intelligence vive. Mais aussi d’un homme qui devait être absent, ou distrait, ou dissident, le jour où fut enseigné l’art de la nuance. Le jour aussi où il fut question de civilité, d’empathie, de « fair-play ».

Comme les Khmers cambodgiens, mais sans leur goût pour l’hémoglobine, Poilievre est partisan de l’affrontement total, de la terre brûlée, de l’annihilation (politique) de l’ennemi. J’en tiens pour preuve qu’il n’a pas le moindre scrupule à utiliser l’insulte personnelle et le mensonge pour arriver à ses fins.

L’insulte ? Affirmer que le chef du Nouveau Parti démocratique (NPD), Jagmeet Singh, est « un vendu » et que la seule raison pour laquelle il tient le gouvernement Trudeau au pouvoir n’est pas, comme il le dit, pour assurer aux Canadiens une assurance dentaire ou des médicaments gratuits, mais pour s’assurer de toucher sa pension, relève d’une volonté de détruire une réputation. Pas un programme, pas une idéologie, pas une proposition trop coûteuse : une réputation.

Le mensonge ? Cet été, le parti de Poilievre a diffusé une publicité peignant Singh comme un élitiste aimant les montres de luxe (il en a deux, reçues en cadeau), les BMW (vrai), les vestons bien coupés (vrai) et qui a fait ses études à Beverly Hills. Oups. La publicité omet de dire que c’est Beverly Hills, dans le Michigan. La volonté de tromper l’auditeur est patente. On y apprend aussi que Singh est un vendu, car il a décidé « de se joindre à Trudeau pour augmenter les taxes, les crimes et le coût de l’habitation ». En échange, il peut rester député jusqu’en 2025 pour ainsi « toucher sa pension de deux millions de dollars ».

Une pension de deux millions ? C’est beaucoup. En fait, il ne pourra la toucher qu’en 2035. En fait, elle ne sera que de 45 000 $ par an. Pour arriver à deux millions, il faut présumer qu’il ne mourra qu’à 90 ans, ce qui est vraisemblable, mais nullement scandaleux.

Beaucoup d’énergies sont investies par Poilievre et son équipe de Khmers bleus pour détruire l’adversaire, à l’aide d’exagérations — ce qui est courant — et de mensonges — ce qui n’était pas encore normalisé dans le discours politique canadien. Poilievre est un agent de propagation de l’irrespect mutuel.

En avril dernier, à la frontière du Nouveau-Brunswick, Poilievre a vu de sa voiture un groupe de manifestants arborant un drapeau « Fuck Trudeau ». Il s’est arrêté pour les saluer et leur a dit, au sujet du premier ministre : « Tout ce qu’il dit est de la bullshit. Tout, sans exception. » Peut-on imaginer Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, même Stephen Harper aller gaiement à la rencontre de gens portant un message aussi grossier, les encourager et manquer à ce point de respect pour leur adversaire politique ? La réponse est évidemment non.

Au moment où les Américains pourraient (j’insiste sur le conditionnel) tourner la page sur dix ans de vitriol, les Canadiens s’apprêtent, l’an prochain, à entrer dans la zone de fiel.

Source: Chronique | Le Khmer bleu

Computer translation:

When Stephen Harper took power in 2006, one of his most delicate tasks was to maintain the unity of a caucus of 124 MPs. Some of the members came from the former Conservative Party, more centrist, others from the former Reform Party, more radically conservative.

The deputy of Nepean-Carleton, Pierre Poilievre, was 26 years old. He was the youngest member of the House. Every Wednesday at the conservative caucus, he appeared at the microphone to preach the good word of fiscal conservatism.

Poilievre had allies. It is that, the day before the caucus, a group of deputies had met who shared the same vision of things, and determined to coordinate their action to counterbalance the influence of the centrists, these spendthrift, these soft, these liberals lost in Harper’s large tent. The group had debated the name it had to give itself. Poilievre had suggested the “Liberty Caucus”. Others had proposed “True Blue”. But Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer and Ontario Cheryl Gallant are fighting for the authorship of the name finally chosen: the Khmer Blue.

The name is bold, because it refers to the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian communists who have tortured and murdered more than one and a half million of their fellow citizens – 25% of the country’s population – between 1975 and 1979. You know me charitable, so I will conclude that this choice did not attest to a desire to assassinate their political opponents. Only to torture them. I mean: psychologically. Basically, they expressed their penchant for ideological intransigence. It’s already busy enough, thank you. Interesting detail: Maxime Bernier was a member.

Harper was delighted with the existence of the group. According to Andrew Lawton, who recounts this episode in his recent Pierre Poilievre: A Political Life (Sutherland), the Prime Minister told one of the Khmer Blue that “the Red Tories and Quebec deputies [two often indistinguishable groups] were those who demanded the most attention in the meetings and consequently exerted disproportionate influence”.

They had to be counterweighted. One of the members of the group, the Albertan Rob Anders, remembers that the meetings produced a consensus each time. “Then we presented ourselves to the caucus the next morning to hammer it during the 30 seconds allocated to each deputy.” One of the Red Tories, Peter MacKay, describes the young Poilievre as a “hawk” throwing himself like a prey on any new government spending. Now that Pierre Poilievre is in the anteroom of power, a character trait is necessary, sharpened by the passing years: intransigence. We are in the presence of a strong-willed, constant politician with a lively intelligence. But also of a man who must have been absent, or distracted, or dissident, on the day the art of nuance was taught. Also the day when there was talk of civility, empathy, “fair play”.

Like the Cambodian Khmers, but without their taste for hemoglobin, Poilievre is a supporter of total confrontation, of the scorched earth, of the (political) annihilation of the enemy. I take it as proof that he has no qualms about using personal insult and lies to achieve his ends.

The insult? To say that the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh, is “sold out” and that the only reason he holds the Trudeau government in power is not, as he says, to provide Canadians with dental insurance or free medication, but to ensure that he receives his pension, is a desire to destroy a reputation. Not a program, not an ideology, not a proposal that is too expensive: a reputation.

The lie? This summer, Poilievre’s party broadcast an advertisement painting Singh as an elitist who loves luxury watches (he has two, received as a gift), BMWs (real), well-cut jackets (true) and who studied in Beverly Hills. Oops. Advertising omits to say that it is Beverly Hills, Michigan. The desire to deceive the listener is patent. We also learn that Singh is a sold out, because he has decided “to join Trudeau to increase taxes, crimes and the cost of housing”. In exchange, he can remain a deputy until 2025 to “receive his pension of two million dollars”.

A pension of two million? That’s a lot. In fact, he will not be able to touch it until 2035. In fact, it will only be $45,000 per year. To get to two million, we must assume that he will only die at 90, which is likely, but in no way scandalous.

A lot of energy is invested by Poilievre and his team of Blue Khmers to destroy the opponent, using exaggerations – which is common – and lies – which was not yet normalized in Canadian political discourse. Poilievre is a spreading agent of mutual disrespect.

Last April, on the New Brunswick border, Poilievre saw from his car a group of demonstrators flying a “Fuck Trudeau” flag. He stopped to greet them and told them, about the Prime Minister: “Everything he says is bullshit. Everything, without exception. “Can we imagine Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, even Stephen Harper cheerfully meeting people carrying such a rude message, encouraging them and disrespecting their political opponent so much? The answer is obviously no.

At a time when Americans could (I insist on the conditional) turn the page on ten years of vitriol, Canadians are preparing, next year, to enter the bile zone.

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Poilievre says he would cut population growth after Liberals signal immigration changes coming

2024/08/31 Leave a comment

Ironically, by reversing some of their ill-advised policies that resulted in overly rapid increases in the number of temporary workers and students and, arguably, Permanent Residents levels, the Liberals have provided a pathway for a more robust discussion of immigration. Given that this is based upon the impact on housing, healthcare and infrastructure, not xenophobia and fear of the other, immigration is not really much of a “third rail,” Telling that Abacus Data didn’t include immigration in their polling on third rail issues.

In case you missed it, my earlier analysis of what one might expect under a Poilievre government,What changes a Conservative government might make to Canada’s immigration policies. In retrospect, my assessment may have been too cautious as these policy reversals by the government make further restrictions more politically acceptible:

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday he would rein in Canada’s population growth if elected, claiming the Liberal government has “destroyed our immigration system” and insisting on cuts to the number of people arriving in order to preserve a program that was once widely supported.

Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill, Poilievre said immigration was “not even a controversial issue” before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected, but a surge in international students and low-wage temporary foreign workers has ruined the “multigenerational consensus” that bringing more people to live here is a good thing.

“The radical, out-of-control NDP-Liberal government has destroyed our system,” Poilievre said. “We have to have a smaller population growth.”

Poilievre said a future Conservative government would tie the country’s population growth rate to a level that’s below the number of new homes built, and would also consider such factors as access to health-care and jobs.

That’s an imprecise metric that makes it difficult to pinpoint just how many permanent residents or non-permanent residents such as temporary foreign workers, international students and refugees would be admitted on Poilievre’s watch.

Poilievre has previously said immigration levels should be tied to housing starts. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported roughly 255,000 housing starts in July.

The federal government has already said it will admit about 485,000 permanent residents — immigrants who intend to settle here on a permanent basis — to Canada this year, with the target rising to 500,000 in both 2025 and 2026.

In an apparent reference to research from Mike Moffatt, the senior director of policy at the Smart Prosperity Institute who has studied immigration and housing, Poilievre said Canada “cannot grow the population at three times the rate of the housing stock, as Trudeau has been doing.”

The government hasn’t offered a hard target for the non-permanent resident streams but has already announced an initiative to rein in the number of international students and, at the Liberal cabinet retreat in Halifax earlier this week, announced a crackdown on low-wage temporary foreign workers (TFWs).

The number of non-permanent residents has been growing at a breakneck pace in the post-COVID era after the federal government relaxed regulations around TFWs and allowed Canada’s colleges and universities to dramatically expand the international student body.

Non-permanent resident population more than doubles in 3 years

In the last three years, the number of non-permanent residents — a category that includes TFWs, international students and asylum seekers — has more than doubled from about 1.3 million in 2021 to nearly 2.8 million in the second quarter of this year, according to data compiled by Statistics Canada.

Of that figure, 1.3 million people are in Canada on work permits, a category that includes TFWs.

The low-wage TFW sector, which has admitted workers in food services but also in sectors such as construction and hospitals, has grown from 15,817 such workers in 2016 to 83,654 in 2023, according to federal data.

The forthcoming changes to the low-wage stream will reduce the number of TFWs by about 65,000, the government has said, which brings it back to pre-pandemic levels.

Poilievre said the government has “destroyed” the TFW program by dropping a number of regulations that were designed to limit foreign workers to certain industries in areas with low unemployment.

The agricultural sector has long relied on TFWs to grow and harvest the food the country eats and exports, and Poilievre said he would preserve the program for that purpose.

But he also said he wants to “block temporary foreign workers where they are taking jobs from Canadians.”

He said he would only admit international students if they have a place to live and the means to pay for it, and possess “a real admission letter to a real educational institution.”

Trudeau said Monday the government is considering reducing the number of permanent residents Canada accepts each year — a potentially major policy change after years of increasing immigration levels on the Liberal government’s watch.

Unemployment high among newcomers

Talk of an immigration cutback comes as unemployment rates among immigrants and young people have crept up to concerning levels in recent months, according to federal data.

According to the Bank of Canada’s recent monetary report, the “newcomer” or immigrant unemployment rate now stands at 11.6 per cent — well above the overall unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent that was recorded in June.

Asked by CBC News if the government is considering broader changes to the immigration system beyond cuts to TFWs at a time of higher unemployment, Trudeau said the government is going to review its immigration levels this fall.

Asked if a reduction in the number of permanent residents is on the table, Trudeau suggested it’s an issue he takes “extremely seriously” and said that topic would be discussed among cabinet ministers.

“We’re making sure that the entire package makes as much sense as possible for the needs of Canadians and for the needs of our economy,” Trudeau said.

“We’ll be looking at unemployment rates and opportunities to make further adjustments over the course of this fall as we come forward with comprehensive level plans that will respond to the reality that Canada’s facing now and in years and decades to come,” he said.

He said immigration needs to be “done right,” and that changes may be forthcoming so that “Canada remains a place that is positive in its support for immigration but also responsible in the way we integrate and make sure there’s pathways to success for everyone who comes to Canada.”

Immigration Minister Marc Miller also said “all options are on the table” when it comes to addressing immigration levels.

He acknowledged that some people have expressed concern to him about the current pace of population growth, which is among the highest in the developed world.

Source: Poilievre says he would cut population growth after Liberals signal immigration changes coming

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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would be OK with permanent resident status for foreign workers, with conditions

2024/08/10 Leave a comment

Not exactly a bankable commitment. The devil will be in the details:

…Poilievre said he will consider permanent status for migrant workers under some specific conditions.

“I am open to it for people who have come legally, who have worked the entire time that they have been here (and) who have, or are learning one of the two official languages,” he said.

“In principle I have no problem with the idea of temporary foreign workers who have proven themselves to be strong, net contributors to our country staying permanently and becoming members of the Canadian family,” he added.

Source: Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would be OK with permanent resident status for foreign workers, with conditions

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