Dear Editor,
Re: “Shut down ‘birthing factories’ in Richmond,” and “I’m not up for paying for birth tourists in Richmond,” Letters.
I am appalled at the language Joanne Teraguchi and Egon Frank seem perfectly comfortable using to describe babies born through so-called birth tourism.
These children are not “new little tourist Canadians”, nor are they “hatched” as if they are some invasive species of reptile or bird.
It is concerning that there is a willingness to use such dehumanizing language to describe individuals who, like every single one of us, have zero control over the circumstances of their birth.
Yes, this is a federal issue.
Yet these letters seem to castigate parents for attempting to provide a better living standard to their children by any means available.
Who can fault them for that? Might you do the exact same if roles were reversed?
Moreover, it would not be the first time in Canadian history that immigrants from afar came uninvited to unceded Indigenous lands to find prosperity.
So I encourage anyone complaining about birth tourism to take a look in the mirror before pointing the finger so assuredly.
To Mr. Frank, it is immoral and against international law to render individuals stateless, especially children.
Whether you like it or not, being born on Canadian soil must result in immediate citizenship.
To Mrs. Teraguchi, your point on children born through birth tourism not paying into the tax system makes no sense.
Children do not contribute to the tax system. If people who gained Canadian citizenship at birth do “come back to Canada” as adult citizens, well guess what?
Then they would have to start paying sales tax, income tax, and/or property tax, wouldn’t they?
So please stop pretending you alone hold up the Canadian tax system.
Yes, let’s push our representatives to curtail loopholes that permit the unfair cutting of immigration and refugee lines.
Yes, let’s push border officials to ensure pregnant visitors have sufficient funds to pay for medical treatment at Canadian hospitals.
However, we can, and must, do this without vilifying and dehumanizing others.
Steven McLean
Richmond
