To the Editor:
The Harper government makes a great show of affection at every possible multicultural event in the country - hoping to gain favour with new immigrant Canadians.
But talk is cheap. Their true colours are more apparent in the regressive policies they impose, designed to appease the anti-immigrant, anti-refugee core of the old Reform Party.
For example, recent legislation has handed the Minister of Citizenship & Immigration enormous arbitrary powers over immigrants and refugees - without any semblance of fairness, consultation, due process or proper rights of appeal.
On another front, ignoring the near-unanimous objections of health professionals, federal health services for refugees have been slashed.
The Conservatives' so-called "solution" to immigration backlogs is to mindlessly cancel applications in the line-up. At a time when growth-provinces like Saskatchewan and Alberta are facing serious labour shortages, the "Skilled Worker Program" is frozen and the door slammed on nearly 300,000 applicants.
Striking close to home, one particularly mean-spirited move is the federal bullying of our provincial government over the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP). The feds want it restructured to deter family immigration. To his credit, Premier Wall seems prepared to push back - for reasons of fairness and common sense.
The anti-family changes imposed on the SINP came suddenly without warning and without transitional arrangements for applications begun in good faith before the rules changed.
The new rules wrongly "assume" that family members attracted to Saskatchewan by the SINP will adversely burden our economy (when the opposite is more likely to be the case). The Conservative anti-family bias also ignores the reality that newcomers settle faster and more successfully when they have their families around them.
Hopefully, the provincial government will make a strong, effective case for a more constructive federal attitude. The SINP is making a valuable contribution to Saskatchewan's growth. It should not be twisted by the feds in ways that cause newcomers to look for opportunities elsewhere.
And congratulations to the "Coalition for a Fair SINP" for raising this issue.
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
