You can say that again. Five per cent of Canada’s land is arable. Does that put things into perspective? Unlike Europeans who were prepared to make something of nothing, most of today’s immigrants head straight for Vancouver or Toronto (33% of all immigrants to Canada settle in Toronto) – with predictable ecological repercussions, including the ongoing paving-over of that small percentage of arable land. In August 1997, in the wake of reports that southern Ontario is one of the most polluted regions on the continent, the provincial government announced plans to improve drinking water.
Even so, officials admit that spending $200-million to upgrade overburdened sewage treatment plants will not even come close to covering what’s needed. In November 1996, the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine noted that Vancouver’s urban sprawl was chiefly responsible for pollution in the Fraser Valley, so much so that scientists warn that water in some aquifers may never be drinkable again.
Far from addressing the real cause of this collapse, none of our politicians would presume to suggest we look at the effects of unchecked immigration. Quite the reverse, they are agitating for even more, because, as always in Canada, immigration boils down to an (essentially suspect) economic argument. They have generated – or may generate – money. Therefore, we need them. Therefore, you’d better shut up, or we’ll have to assume you’re a racist, and we wouldn’t want that, would we? Will we ever know (or be permitted to know) the actual costs associated with revising our infrastructure, the demands on the land, the ecological impact, the expense in terms of health, education and welfare? Unlikely.
The very notion that it is somehow ‘honourable’ to trade citizenship for cash is repugnant. Apart from theoretically calculable costs, there is another question looming larger all the time. The almost incidental possibility that this may just be a self-imposed act of genocide. Generally speaking, nothing concentrates the mind quite so readily as the threat of imminent death, but Canadians have been so thoroughly lied to, mistreated and misled, we no longer dare trust or follow our instincts. Like a nation of Stepford Wives, harsh realities send us hurrying into the kitchen to do a little baking. “How about a little dessert?”