Close Reading

There are many problems with anti-immigrant rhetoric and one of them is the classification who is and who isn't an immigrant and the question of when does a person stop becoming an immigrant and become a Canadian? A significant portion of people living in Canada are first/second/third generation Canadians and so, how do we classify these people, are they immigrants or are they not? And what of their parents/grandparents who immigrated, are they? It's very important to note that without their ancestor parents, all these first/second/third gen Canadians will not be here and they are now 'Canadians' today because we had pro-immigration laws. Also, the idea of accessing services is by itself, very problematic. I spent the first 4 years of my life here paying high tuition fees as well as tax that are used to subsidize fellow Canadians' tuition fees yet I'm not able to access any government services. Following graduation, I worked as a worker on visa where my tax was no less than an average Canadian yet government services were very much inaccessible to me. It was only after I became permanent resident, that somehow everything suddenly became available to me. I have been tax paying 6-7 years before I became a PR here yet all those years, I wasn't able to access a single thing yet somehow, after I became PR, I'm eligible for everything? The tax argument doesn't make sense at all. I will be eligible to apply for citizenship in like a year and does that mean now I am one of you, Canadians?

Facts much? Canada allows anyone to live in Canada for a year on the tax payers dime as long as they submit a refugee claim. The Canadian public is paying upwards of $60,000 CAD for each of these claimants living costs which is more than what many Canadians make in a year. Additionally if these claimants' claims are refused they simply leave for a day, come back and start the process all over again, again getting to live in Canada for a year on the tax payers back. What a great scam.

I think both cultures are too severe/extreme. women covering their faces in hot summer while Canadian women stand waiting outside for taxis to go get drunk wearing skirts even hooker's wouldn't wear in the eighties. or wearing nylons as pants and that's it. where is modesty that doesn't make you almost pass out from heat exhaustion, or modesty that doesn't make you look like a hooker? where is that old saying......happy medium?

I'm sick of being invaded! Get the fuck out seriously! If only we could have a kind of Donald trump for the Canada! \n\nI never thought that i would say that one day but I'm a french canadian and I have a message to all my english canadians, we must to forget our differences for once because we are the REAL Canadians here and it's time to be unite against the real threat. I know between us it never has been perfect because we are different, but after all this is OUR land not them. They just try to make a Coran's Lands 2.0\n\nAnd it pissed me off that those fucking immigrants can go first and not the native populations that they were firsts and they welcomed us. We give them too much privileges!\n\nbtw with Trudeau it's not gonna change for the best.

Canadians better wake up...i mean wake up fast~! You wont see it now but...... when the shit starts going down you will regret tat youve accepted 50,0000 immagrents from muslim countrys.Dont make the mistake Europe made.

THIS MAKES ME DISGUSTED TO LIVE HERE & BE A CANADIAN CBC\nWe're all decedents from other countries Except for OUR NATIVES \nHastags GO \n#COLOUREDLOVE #CRIMEskinsHUMANITY #MAKEITnotAWKWARD #PEACEisALLweNEED

I am sure the Canadian govt. knows what is BEST for Canada or they would of NOT let them in , in the first place.  Maybe the Canadians love muslims.  I mean why would you let people in you don't like,  it don't make sense.  I think the Canadians love muslims.  I think Europe loves muslims. IF you don't like them, why do they all come pouring into your country. I think they all love muslims. Why would the queen and gov let these people into the country if the people didn't like muslims.  I don't think the queen or govts would do this without the peoples conscent.  I am sure the queen and gov will continue to do what is BEST for the peoples.  The queen is to be trusted. She is royalty.

this video is make me funny. first, nobody judge you guys should invite muslim to came here, if muslim is bad then how about the seal, why canadian keep silent about seal killing? is that what you guys say Humanity? Respectful? ALL BULLSHIT

You are what you eat. Do you really think muslims well get control. LMAO. Seriously They can not even get control over there. They made a mess of their own land. The only thing I see is everything gets dirty. Everyone wants to come to the North, United States and Canada. These people need to go make their own work. Canada has a 100,000.00 people out of homes . we have no room for extra. That is not including the standard homeless, and troubled young adults. Someone told me they have people starving. Children dying. So do we, they need care and parents can not afford it. Tax me for i want to help every CANADIAN. When we are home free maybe we can splurge. Sorry to all muslims. you need to go home our Country is not well. .

I would very much like the muslims to tell us real Canadians what contributions that they are making to our country as a whole. How are they making life in Canada better? How are they bringing stability and growth to our country? They spend time teaching their silly little book to the people in their flock but nothing about Canada, our values, our hopes and aspirations for the country. The silly little book does nothing to further the common good of Canada. It only forwards the wants of the muslim community.\nAnd finally, religion is the bane of intellectual thought. No one and I mean no one, can know about the mind of a god that does not exist.

Probably the only thing i liked about harper. \nHe actually protected Canada from the bad type immigrants (there are good too). \nHe made a law making companies hire Canadians FIRST and if they really cant find someone they can hire immigrants. \nHe also lowered the quota of immigrants coming in every year to a reasonable amount that we can actually handle...\n... I am actually not a harper supported believe it or not and voted for Trudeau but tbh Harper does have some things right. Very few things but yea.

+Joe Smith explain? When you join a new country it's generally to start a better life. The moment an immigrant comes here they're as Canadian as I am. I'm no Native so what does the time matter? Immigrants sacrifice leisure time for work/school and other opportunities. People born in western countries do t appreciate what they have whereas immigrants can make magic happen with minimum wage. They work so much harder than an average westerner born and raised. No question.

HORSESHIT! We are the least racist country in the world - why else are they flocking here? LSM lame stream media are nothing but fucking lairs-so sick of you all. Always making us out to be racists... I HATE the CANADIAN MEDIA that's who I hate and of course ALL those who honor death over life too.

Canadians and United States Americans wake up and make a stand against Islam.

As a multi generational Canadian, I don't really care whether they cover their face or not. That's their choice. During my life I've seen all these different forms of conservative dress from catholic nuns, to Hutterites to Mennonites and these people are just part of the mix. What this is designed to do is to create a barrier between themselves and the larger society which is fine. I would never interact with one of these woman ever because the thin flimsy barrier makes it clear that she is not interested in talking to anyone for any reason and again this is fine. If she was with a man I would talk only with the man and completely ignore her and if she was with a male child I would talk to the male child, not to her. I don't normally chat with women who are strangers other than now and then in a supermarket line or whatever. This face thingy frees me from the need of chitchat small talk and I'm good with that. In any case we would have absolutely nothing in common.

Tolerance is not a one way street. Canadians (and other westerners) should wake up and realize that, and also form a basic understanding about the evils of islam, that muslims stand for.\nMany douchebags and pseudo-liberals of the Ben Affleck kind, will go to great lengths to defend islam and muslims while knowing absolutely nothing about that religion or its followers, with the only purpose being to selfishly display how PC they are. A true liberal person will value their acquired freedoms and privileges, and not be tolerant of the intolerant. Furthermore, real leaders should not be afraid to bring these points up, backing them up with hard evidence (not just hear-say or opinions), for the purpose of protecting civilised society: so that muslims and non-muslims all can understand why islam is incompatible with western civilisation. If muslims are offended by any of that, then that offence is brought on by themselves. PC has no place here.\n\nHere are some reasons why islam is incompatible with civilised society:\n1. Muslims consider the quran to be the perfect book and their prophet to be the perfect man, who's behaviour is to be aspired to, so perfect that any imagery of him does him great injustice and is forbidden. Other than being plain stupid, this in itself doesn't affect civilised society much (except free speech when drawing cartoons), but this does becomes a critical point in combination with the next points:\n2. A perfect man does not marry a 6 year old girl and then f*ck her when she's 9. But that's what their perfect prophet did and they know it, often justifying it as being in a different time. Well no time ever has been ok for a 50+ year old man to f*ck a 9 year old. \n3. In this religion that muslims consider perfect, apostasy is to be punished by death (quran 4:89). This combined with the fact that muslims consider their religious doctrines more important than man-made (western) law is something that makes them incompatible with civilised society. Of course they benefit from the civilised society, but not vice versa. \n4. Then there are the many verses in the quran that order muslims to fight non-muslims (and specifically jews), order death for adultery and homosexual behaviour, etc. Just search and you'll find as there are way too many to list here. Try here for example: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/\n5. Islam is an extremely controlling religion, it intervenes in everything aspect of human life, even as far as with which hand is to be used for eating and which for wiping off after taking a dump. It also declares itself to be the only true and last religion leaving no space for other religions or atheism. This is what makes it such a totalitarian and fascist religion.\n\nMuslims won't deny these points I listed, but they often will try to evade addressing them. \nToo keep a long story short: if you are really a tolerant/liberal person, then you stand your ground and stand for civilised principles, and don't tolerate or defend islam like some traitorous PC pseudo-liberal Ben Aslick sort of character.

Looking at the comments below, I have to say, good job Harper. Turning Canadians against Canadians. Stirring the pot of racism. Lifting the wet rocks under which the racist xenophobic cretins that are usually shunned from society can now crawl into everyday life and feel empowered. ABC - Anyone But Conservatives. Let's go Justin Trudaeu, make your father proud.

I as a Canadian am sick of muslims and I don't care if people like it or not, they are ungrateful and Canadian taxpayers having to pay a bill of over 260,000 dollars makes me angry, if you don't want to show your faces get the hell out and don't come ,it's high time we all wake up and see this cancer for what it is. I'm not a racist, I am a patriotic Canadian.

The women said they are not enforced to wear the niqab or burka, if it so, is not mandatory and there is anything to do with their religion why to wear it ? why do not they embrace our culture, they can keep their faith in their heart and their home , no one cares. Do they use it to be distinguished as muslim women from non-muslim women, so then muslim men can just harm the non muslim, as it says it is been done in other countries as in Sweden when they raped non muslims women? Then why are they forced to use it in their countries and punished even killed for not using it? The niqab , I did not care they use it unless it does not harm anyone but now that as been said they using it to distinguish women it borrows me, the full burka is too extreme if it is not mandatory so do not use it cause it just makes you apart from others Canadian women and it do not bring peace and no safety. If Islam is a peaceful religion , they should do everything they can to maintain the peace.

As an atheist exmuslim who despises orthodox islam and jihadis, I have the ability to separate the regular muslims from the crazy ones. I have always admired Canada's openness and inclusivitiy which I believe is unrivalled in the world. However the hate speech in these comments are troubling. Not all americans are KKK members and not all muslims are jihadis. Let's all oppose the crazy ones together but by preaching hate speech against all Muslim Canadians you are making the situation a lot worse and perhaps turning what is 1% of Muslim Canadians to a higher number.

What about the terrorism that Christians are involved in?  The sexual abuse of children that still goes on today.  People have to remember not only were Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict were aware of the sexual abuse the perverted priests and bishops engage in,  but Pope Benedict went out of his way to move and protect the pedophile priests.  The Catholic church has spent millions on lawyers to prevent having to pay out the victims of sexual abuse.  The catholic church also has in its possessions stolen art works and valuables stolen by the Nazis during the war.  They have not handed them back to their rightful owners.  And to add insult to injury the Catholic church enjoys tax exemption status and protection in Canada while the victims of the church do not have access to services to help them rebuild their lives due to the effects they still suffer as a result of this abuse.  \n\nAn example of the further victimization sexual abuse victims of the Catholic cult have been exposed to is the practice of Crimen sollicitationis  Crimen sollicitationis states that if a person speaks out about their sexual abuse experiences within this cult they can be ex-communicated from the church.  \n\nAs a white man who is an ex catholic and who also had sexual abuse from this church it is my belief that many young children who were sexually and spiritually abused by the Catholic cult did not come forward because of shame and did not want to have to be exposed to this kind of re victimization by the Catholic cult again. \n\nI believe it is because a lot of Muslim people are people of colour that they are persecuted in Canada.  The real terrorist in Canada is not only the Catholic church but a spokesman for them the Crime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada.  The are terrorists who rig elections, and their party is rife with criminal and illegal activity and are a threat to democracy.  That is why everyone should be protesting their anti terrorist bill they are ramming down the throats of Canadians Bill C-51  \n\nIf you have nothing intelligent to say and believe being a conservative makes you exempt from the laws of Canada, and you are set in dismantling democracy, the Conservative Party of Canada wants you.

My experience in Canada has been largely positive, with only minimal racial difficulties.  As a teenager, I do recall some kids making blatantly racist comments, when I was the only minority in the room; but they were silly girls, popular and full of themselves, and most of the students who heard did not laugh with them. We all knew it was wrong.  Another time I was told, by an agent, that a potential employer claimed she would not hire me because of my race.  I did not hear these words firsthand, though, so it was impossible for me to verify the truth. In the end, I let the matter alone. Other people,  I realize, have endured severe injustices; such have not been my experience, but this does not subtract from their reality.  Indeed, racism does exist, and shall remain as long as there are imbeciles wallowing in the mire of ignorance, people who cling to an absurd sense of superiority for lack of something more meaningful to hold.  As well--and it must be said!--quite likely, we all have, at some point, entertained discriminatory thoughts. 'Tis not a 'black and white' problem but a human one, and we must be mindful of it beginning with ourselves.  Canada, then, with its many inhabitants and complex history, will never be the exception. We can't expect perfection among people, here or anywhere else in the world.  Even so,  I believe there are enough fellow Canadians who strive to treat people as individuals and are happy to make friends across cultures.  My life has been and continues to be a testament to that!  Whatever our troubles, we still retain a proud heritage of diversity and progressive ethnic harmony.  We do try, and for this reason I love my country.  I am deeply patriotic and immensely proud to be part of it!