By Rebel News | Created at 2024-11-15 01:36:18 | Updated at 2024-11-22 09:25:58
1 week ago
A growing number of Canadians are concerned by the lack of integration of immigrants, according to a recent Leger survey.
One quarter (25%) of respondents believe newcomers should give up their customs and traditions upon arrival, reported True North.
Max Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, says Canadians have had their fill of “radical multiculturalism” and the “cult of diversity.”
Quebecers aged 55 and older felt strongest about not allowing in newcomers who advocate barbaric cultural practices.
In 2015, Parliament passed Bill S-7, the Zero Tolerance For Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, to criminalize forced marriages. The Conservative Cabinet, 17 days before that year’s election, announced it would establish a police tip line dedicated to “barbaric cultural practices” if re-elected.
“In 2015, things changed in a very significant way,” Naheed Nenshi, Calgary’s then-mayor, testified to the Senate human rights committee, years later.
“Do I believe the government of that day, in its Barbaric Cultural Practices Act and its niqab bans, was particularly Islamophobic? Did I believe those people were Islamophobic? No.”
He claimed Canadians should fear the radicalization of white men over young Muslims.
The Leger survey found that 51% of respondents believe there are “too many” Muslims in Canada. A whopping 77% view Islam very negatively.
“It suggests an exacerbation of a persistent trend and rise of a worrisome backlash accompanied by more stereotyping of Muslims,” Jack Jedwab, chief executive of the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS), told the National Post.
He said “there is an underlying concern about newcomer integration and the exacerbation of inter-group tensions.”
Bernier, meanwhile, says that newcomers are welcome to bring their “own flavour” to Canadian life, as long as they integrate into our society.
They cannot “continue to live like in their old country in an ethnic ghetto,” he clarified.
The former Tory minister did not only call out Islamic extremism in remarks posted to X on Wednesday.
“We should absolutely not tolerate the barbaric and violent ideologies they bring with them, like radical Islam or Khalistani activism,” he said.
“Not only should we not be encouraging and subsidizing this balkanization; we should denounce it and actively discourage it,” Bernier continued.
“We should tell those immigrants who only came here to benefit from our economy and social programs … to ‘get out of our country and go back.’”
A 2023 Angus Reid study revealed some 40% of Canadians hold an unfavourable view of Islam.
Nearly two in five (39%) of those surveyed held a “Negative” or “Very Negative” view of the religion amid discussions concerning Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Judaism.
“Do I believe they saw a political benefit in a cost-benefit analysis by targeting Muslims?” Nenshi posed. “Yes, I do.”
Just over one in five (22%) respondents were critical of the Sikh faith.
On April 13, Tom Kmiec, the Conservative immigration critic, would not commit to restricting immigration through a Canadian values test.
“I don’t want my government determining which values it supports and which it doesn’t,” Kmiec said at the time, noting that has been the doctrine of the Trudeau government since 2015.
“I believe things like health care, housing, [and] jobs [are] all [things] Canadians can get behind,” he said regarding the immigration file.
“There’s no subjectivity to them, you either have those services or you don’t.”
While most Canadians think it’s important to pass their customs and traditions down to future generations (76%), those aged between 18 and 34 were less likely to feel that way, at 65%.
Additionally, a Leger poll from October found that the majority (65%) of Canadians think that there are “too many” immigrants in Canada.
Alex Dhaliwal
Calgary Based Journalist
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
