With the exit of Guillaume Cliche-Rivard (GCR) from Québec solidaire, the debate on immigration has become more complex. But he immediately became stupidly polarized.
For several weeks, we had the impression that a consensus was crystallizing. Canada and Quebec receive too many immigrants for current infrastructure. Hence the crises in housing, classrooms, hospital services.
GCR and QS are right: we cannot make newcomers the sole cause of these three problems.
The fact remains that the study by Stéfane Marion and Alexandra Ducharme, of the National Bank (entitled “Canada is caught in a demographic trap”), was enough to shake any honest reader.
In 2023, Canada’s population will increase by more than 1.2 million, economists noted. We would have to “go back to 1949, when Newfoundland joined the federation, to see the population […] increase by more than 600,000 people in a given year!”
Evolution
This argument also forced the Trudeau Liberals and, after them, those of Tanguay, to adjust their discourse.
We should control “a little” the foreign student sector, conceded the federal PM.
Marc Tanguay, for his part, said one thing and its opposite: a) the large number of new arrivals puts pressure “on public services”. The next day, he clarified b) that it was not necessary to “turn off the tap”. The only problem? Government “poor planning”. Easy.
- Listen to the political meeting between Antoine Robitaille and Benoît Dutrizac via QUB :
PQ leader Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon was over the moon. To the tune of “I told you so”, he claimed to have understood, for two years, that the current situation resulted from Ottawa’s migration policy amounting to ideological “delusion”.
Cliche-Rivard wanted to respond; re-establish “certain facts”, or even tell “the truth” (nothing less) on the subject.
No one has the “truth.” Not even QS. The interesting text of GCR, however, was somewhat fanciful. Are all asylum seekers “real” refugees? Reading GCR, the impression was yes. Same thing for foreign students, to whom GCR advocated limitless generosity. Yet 19% do not study, according to Statistics Canada! They use diploma mills to establish themselves here.
And the future of French? Not a word of GCR in his text. He should consult the liberal Monsef Derraji, sensitive and eloquent on this issue.
PHOTO TOMA ICZKOVITS
Two traps
Under the guise of “lifting the taboo” on the question of immigration, some are “blowing on the embers of intolerance”. They exist, but not in our political class, it seems to me.
Second trap: being incapable of admitting the practically unprecedented nature of the current migratory phenomenon, for which no state planning would have been sufficient.
Fortunately, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois conceded this Thursday, regarding temporary immigrants: “Is 500,000 too many? The answer is yes.”
The nature of the partisan game will push the parties to throw names at each other. The common good would, however, require that they try to resolve the issue together. It’s my turn to be angelic, I know it.