[Rant] Our laws have been bent and rewritten to accommodate the newcomers. What once was a strong free nation; we have become a wish-wash of people pleasers. In the last 50 years our immigration laws have been rewritten many times, to accept more and more people. In many of our large cities non-immigrants are the minority. Our ever so patriotic politicians see this, and change our laws to suite the new demographic, so they will get more votes. They ignore our customs and traditions that made this country, and replace it with those of our new citizens.
I really disagree with this. The reasons many people have worked hard to change Canadian immigration law is because those laws were (and still are to a certain extent)
racist. I can point to dozens of scholarly books that discuss the ways that Canadian immigration law was meant to keep out people of colour, except as non-status labourers (which means they can come in to work, but can't have citizenship or any rights) until the immigration laws changed in the 60s & 70s. Since then, there has actually been a lot of
restrictions that have been added to the Canadian immigration laws. Restrictions on money, class, language, etc... so that still today, a certain type of person is favoured.
Also, I would like to point out that Canada is a
settler colony... Most of Canada is still under dispute as land
stolen from the indigeneous people, who are still being colonized and oppressed by the colonial state. This "our" culture that you're talking about is a myth of a cultural standard of people of European descent. Because this is a settler nation, the only people who were "here first" are the native people. Everyone else, including those of European descent, immigrated here at some point. I would also like to point out that Europeans were not the only ones to immigrate to Canada early on, and that Africans and Asians have also been part of early immigration to Canada. Just because the dominant group is of European descent, does not mean it is the "legitimate" culture that other people should come and assimilate to. Canada has never been a "strong free nation", it has been a nation that has grown through the exploitation of various peoples over time.
That said, I am happy to live in a country like Canada, where democracy still means something, and where people can mobilize and pressure our governments to make changes that are more socially just and less oppressive.
I also think it's really wonderful that Canada is a place where so many people from so many different cultures (both from other countries AND cultures & subcultures that are more commonly thought of as being American/Canadian) can live together, experience each others cultures, address problems, and all grow and develop from it. Cities like Toronto, where over half the population comes from recent immigrant backgrounds, makes for a culturally rich city. Montreal as well, has benefitted from being so culturally diverse, but all the good things that come from diversity mean nothing if we don't have laws that protect the rights of EVERYONE to have free expression and live without oppression.
