The Liberals are Creating a Whole New Sponsorship Scandal -- & -- Quebeckers' Addiction to the Gomery Inqiry

My critique of the immigration sponsorship fiasco which follows is indebted to Martin Collacott, a former Canadian ambassador and ferocious critic of our lame-brained immigration system. Also, Diane Francis, the award-winning financial columnist, has exposed the abuses of this sponsorship scam. Both write articles which appeared in The National Post, April 20 edition.

Knee deep in the ole muddy of the ADSCAM affair, the Liberals have embarked on a new sponsorship endeavour. Now they want Canadians to applaud their tripling the number of elderly immigrants sponsored by their children living in Canada. Instead of allowing only 6,000 elderly parents and grandparents to come into Canada annually, they want to allow 18,000. The government doesn't want to mention that since 1986 we have already allowed 250,000 of these unproductive people to batten on our social and health services. The 'theory' is that the sponsoring children will look after their elderly kin, but the reality is shockingly different.

Diane Francis quotes John Baird, the Minister of Community and Social Services for Ontario (the hardest hit province). Baird says that in 2002 in Ontario alone, there were 16,000 cases of sponsors defaulting on their obligations. "The sponsor is a deadbeat and the federal government is the enabler," he complained. On a national level this cost Canadians around $700 million a year in welfare and other costs. When several provinces sued 1,600 of these deadbeats, the Federal government stopped the process, without explanation. Well, I have an explanation. The Liberals are so addicted to garnering the ethnic vote that no amount of harm to the taxpayers and citizens will be allowed to interfere with their pandering. The Liberals' response to the huge number of defaulting sponsors for the three year period was to increase the sponsorship promise to ten years. Keep it off the books for seven more years seemed to be their answer to the problem. However, the insanity does not end there. No, now we find out that sponsors, who are themselves on welfare or disability, can sponsor old relatives who will certainly join them in penury. Straight out of Alice in Wonderland stuff here.

Australia, Britain and the United States all demand that a bond be posted to cover any medical services these geriatric immigrants might need. Not here in Canada, of course. Here, they can compete with you for your limited health services. Then there are the federally-funded language training services, which will be offered to people who are too old or uninterested to benefit from them. Volpe is also talking about giving the ones who cannot be sponsored immediately extended visitor visas for five years. Add them to the welfare / healthcare roles.

Martin Collacott presents another angle that most Canadians never consider. Colacott maintains that the sponsored elderly can then also begin sponsoring their other children or near relatives. So somebody who shouldn't be in the country can sponsor other drags on the economy. Those new cases can then marry their fellow citizens, who can come to Canada and--wait for it--also sponsor their kin. A snowball that soon becomes an avalanche. This new hidden agenda is to mask the fact that for years the government has been allowing in 21,000 sponsored parents / grandparents. I used to think that all those old Vancouverite Asians were born here, until I realized that many couldn't speak English. You see them in the ER, accompanied by their children, because they can't even describe their symptoms. Hospital translators have to be hired. These incrmental costs are an endless highway of fiscal obligations for the immigrant cities.

Considering the downside to Mr. Volpe's new policies, what do the Liberals see as the upside? Apparently, they think the immigrant community will be so happy to see papa san that they will forget who pays for this. Well, all the other ethnic voters who do not benefit know they are paying for these unproductive individual oldsters. They may have two beefs about this. First, they know it is nothing but a cheap political dog-and-pony-show and secondly, they also will have to pay for these unassimilated, tax-draining people. Oh, definitely, this cynical ploy could blow up in the Liberals' faces, if the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois have the guts to expose it. Forget the NDP, they probably don't think Volpe went far enough. If no opposition party challenges this travesty, then we really are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, should they win.

© Bud Talkinghorn



Small wonder the Quebecois were so addicted to Gomery

The Gomery Commission can be taxing with its nitty-gritty examinations of accounts. However, there are gems that make watching it worthwhile. Claude Boulay, smirkingly defending getting his half million dollar deals without a shred of a written government contract. He mentioned how Guite helped him assemble a decent wine cellar collection. How his company charged 17.5% for the appearance of a bunch of cheerleaders. How a fishing and hunting exhibition that attracted about 4,000 attendees ballooned into a $1-million-plus contract for Group Everest--for consulting, i.e. putting up a few banners. His smugness while defending these blatant frauds is worth a million in Conservative advertising. His better lines should be put into TV Conservative ad clips, and for comic relief, you could have the amnesiac clown, Corriveau, discussing the fine points of art.

© Bud Talkinghorn