To begin with, let me take a second to give a polite nod to
the most Canadian of gestures: the apology. I will be battling poor generalizations with
poor generalizations, emotional outburst with emotion and hopefully a
smattering of logic. For the former I apologize,
for the latter I hope to redeem myself.
I’m getting more than a little tired of well intentioned,
learned and even media driven exhortations about how the government can ignore
poverty in Canada whilst still manage to take in refugees. Now, I will give a pass to the people who are
spouting off a tumble of non-reasoned words like a string of curses to exercise
their right to express a strong emotional response. But, for those of you who think this is a
valid opinion in any shape or form, please, please give your cobwebs of rage
and fear a shake and dust out that bone-box attic of yours. Poverty in Canada is in no way hindered by a
budget constraint.
We have heard it all before, budget cuts, the need for more
funding, shelters opening, food banks closing, the need for more beds, subsidized
housing, better education, an unfixable problem, a necessary evil, minimum
wages, guaranteed incomes, generational welfare, entitlements, too much taxes…this
can go on and on ad nauseam. The simple fact is there has always been poverty
and homelessness in Canada…always. This
fact has been mollified for us in the same way we look at speed limits on
highways. We know thousands of lives can
be saved year-over-year by reducing speed limits but we aren’t ready to make
that kind of lifestyle adjustment. Or,
there is some sort of magical statistic whereas accidental and preventable
deaths merge together to become tolerable.
This form of thought as applied to homelessness comes in the form of expenditure
and property: we know that if we house
all Canadians there will be no homelessness; but, do we really want to give up all
of that money infrastructure and time?
The greater majority of Canadians are comfortable with their lives, not
that they don’t complain, but generally have no need for charity.
This is why I’ve become comfortable saying Canadians don’t
care about the homeless. What a horrible
thing to say, right? Oh, I’ve been
called out on it more than once. I’ve
had people say they volunteer, donate, offer respite and even campaign for these
hard social issues. Hell, I’ve even had
it thrown back in my face—why don’t I do something? But, the facts don’t lie. With the income that our government collects
we could easily provide food and shelter for all Canadians. That is not to say we wouldn’t have to adjust
our priorities, we would…significantly.
And when I say Canadians, I’m talking about us as a whole…not a
smattering of individuals that feel, share, live and empathize with the less
fortunate. We would rather have a good
internet connection than eliminate poverty.
So, please desperately try to avoid this comparison when discussing
refugees.
‘Wait! It isn’t about
whether we can afford it…it is about us already paying into Canada and these people
getting all these things for free!’ Ah,
yes. This, again, is why I feel no reticence
in saying Canadians don’t care about the homeless. Now, if we put aside the childish idea that
we can ear-mark our taxes or that most people pay the lion’s share of what they
receive by living in this country (it is and they don’t) we have yet another
example of entitlement that oh so commonly gets branded into the poor hides of
people suffering through welfare. We
have an obligation to recognize the importance of the struggles of our
past: we certainly don’t have the right
to rest on the laurels of our past. We,
as a modern nation need to pave our own way just as much as the generations
before. The idea that we inherited this
great wealth and have the right to horde it as we see fit destroys everything
that was fought for in generations previous.
When people say we were founded through immigration that isn’t just a pleasant
thing to say (and for the sake of brevity, I will avoid the obvious colonial
atrocities involved) it has meaning. It
means we don’t have a unified culture:
we have a unified state. To
confuse this leads to the burning hatred that becomes nationalism. Yes, nationalism, the personification of the
worst tribal instincts distilled from human-kind.
Further, you will always have to pay taxes. That an immigrant or refugee gets a degree of
compensation does not change that. In
fact, in short order they will start paying taxes. In fact, a refugee has a much higher chance
of actually contributing more taxes than your average Canadian long-term. This leads to a comparison most people don’t
like to think of. Giving a refugee money
is more akin to doling out money for infrastructure projects than contributing
to welfare. Strange right? This is truly why I am for supporting
refugees. My cold-hearted mind stabs my
bleeding heart in the back and tells me that Canada needs the influx of people
to be able to sustain it. It needs
refugees because they are far more likely to be an entrepreneur, far less
likely to need social assistance long-term and far less likely to commit
crimes. Refugees tend to be far more
industrious than our average citizens in terms of motivation and labour: happily taking any work and collecting
billable hours far past our lazy eight.
Investing in immigration and refugees is more like repaving our economy
than helping the less fortunate. And generally, it only takes one or two
generations for their kids to feel as entitled as our angry tax-paying dissenters…but
don’t worry accepting more refugees will fix that too.
