Dear Editor,
Re: “Respect given to immigrants who make an effort,” Letters, Aug, 26.
Despite past disagreements on local issues, I must fully agree with Mr. Alan Halliday’s letter in the Aug. 26 Richmond News.
Mr. Halliday, you are absolutely correct in what you point out, no exception.
Canada has long been an open door to all who could prove they could play well with others.
When I moved here from Montreal in 1996, I was already fluent in English thanks to my parents enlisting me in English school as an eight-year-old, knowing I wouldn’t lose my French.
Years later, I realized the importance of their decision and its impact on my entire family, as I was the only one fluent in English in my entire extended family, save one uncle.
I am a working-class citizen with moderate income and must go to work and do what I am told.
If I had moved here with millions of dollars in my bank account, and an unlimited supply of incoming money from my family, honestly speaking, I don’t think I would have felt any pressure to fit in because, like all people with very large amounts of money, I would do what I damn well please, and the general population would simply have to suck it up.
I don’t believe newcomers with mounds of cash do anything different than locals who have the same wealth to be truthful... It’s just easier for me to pick out the immigrants because they don’t seem to try enough to fit in linguistically.
But who am I to judge these people? Canada, with all it’s government employees and screening processes, has accepted a person on her land and now this person is free, like you and me.
Australia has apparently modified its rules, accepting only people on her land if they really speak English, unlike the ridiculous test we have here.
I know a few people, personally, who became Canadian citizens, yet do not speak one word of English or French. How this happened is a mystery to me.
I have to imagine there was lots of money paid to someone.
This is all legal and plain paperwork our government hands out to people who wish to live here.
This is beyond Alice Wong, Christy Clark and the big cheese in Ottawa. It’s our system.
To fight for change would be Herculean at this point, since we Canadians of all colours and creed would never agree on copying Australia’s innovative idea.
I, too, wish all new Canadians could be screened so as to guarantee they all really do speak our language, but I’m no fool, and this will not happen here.
As the song goes, “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”
Our attitude toward each other will say “welcome” or not.
I simply make the effort each day to smile at strangers in the hopes that they, too, one day will feel Canadians are welcoming toward them. Canada is my country; my land is my back yard and that’s all I own.
Raymond Pare
Richmond
