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Newcomers deserve cheers not jeers

AN INNOCENT celebration of
being Canadian prompted the latest
flare-up in the insidious war
against immigrants on the North
Shore.

By Kate Zimmerman
News Reporter

Who would have thought that the desire

of some newcomers to show their gratitude -

for the pleasures of life in this. their new
country, could enrage the neighbors?

The 400 Iranians who gathered in: North
Vancouver's Victoria Park on July i chose
to spend the afternoon munching cake and
enjoying Iranian music.

Some neighbors griped that the music
was too loud. It tured out that the group,
that applied for a permit to gather in the

- park, did not get the needed authorization.

Anti-immigration cranks will no doubt
seize upon this commendable, if slightly
disorganized, effort at patriotism as another
example of newcomers getting uppity.

The same people who insist that minori-
ties integrate and become part of the
Canadian mainstream are always the first to
deny them the right to do so.

Kids need good care

The complainers maintain that immi-
grants are trying “to shove their culture
down our throats,” because it is apparently
preferable for us to shove our culture, what-
ever that is, down theirs. (By the same
token, the most vigorous defenders of free
speech and the'right to utter bigoted state-
ments want dissatisfied immigrants to shut
up about the problems they encounter here.)

The anti-multicultural contingent insists
on its paranoiac viewpoint that immigrants
are a largely illiterate and unruly scourge on
this country and all its resources, particular-
ly the social safety net.

Statistics Canada has just released a
report that debunks these widely held
beliefs.

Canada’s Changing Immigration
Population was based on 1991 census infor-
mation and other data dating back four
decades. It points out that contrary to fears
that more and more uneducated immigrants
are spilling into the country and overtaking
native-born Canadians, newcomers com-
prised a mere 16% of the population since
1951.

In addition, in 1991, a greater portion of
adult immigrants — 14% — held university
degrees than Canadian-born residents —
11%. A full 17% of the immigrants who

arrived in this country between 1981 and
1991 brought with them a university
degrce. Immigrants tend to be better educat-
ed in general than Canadians with more
years of schooling than we have,

Once in Canada, the study shows immi-
grant men were more likely to attain man-
agerial and professional jobs than men born
here. Despite the obstacles of having to
learn the language and overcome the preju-
dices of employers, in 1991 65.2% of immi-
grants older than 15 were in the workforce,
compared with 68.7% of native-born
Canadians. The highest rates of labor force
participation were found in male newcom-
ers from Africa, Southern Asia, the
Caribbean and Central and South America,

Of course, those who would prefer to
keep Canada white may twist these statis-
tics to demonstrate that immigrants are
“stealing jobs” from Canadians. Such an
argument would naturally ignore the fact
that working people of every ethnic back-
ground contribute to the tax base which
supports us all. But at least the new com-
plaint will be a switch from the old “our
taxes are paying to support foreigners on
welfare” routine.

In any case, the statistics make it clear
that people of European extraction aren't

intellectually superior, as some people
would have us believe. And white citizens
are no harder working than visible minori-
ties who come here because they think
Canada will offer them and their families a
better chance at a future.

Almost all our ancestors wound up in
this enormous, intimidating country for that
very reason: they wanted a decent life. We
have that motivation, at the very least, in
common with recent immigranis.

With that in mind, what possible, good
can it do to perpetuate xenophobia? Where
is the benefit of ascribing the most vile of
human qualities to other people on the basis
of where they happened to be born?

And if the situation were reversed,
which of us ‘vould emerge triumphant with
a respectable job and a virtuous lifestyle, if
we emigrated to a country where the lan-
guage and customs were foreign to us and
the residents regarded us with mistrust and
disgust?

These people deserve respect and recog:
nition of their successes. Those who would
deny them their due are like schoolyard bul-
lies who get their kicks from beating up the
sraallest — and quite possibly the smartest
-— kid in the class. Why do they find that
kid so threatening?

GoveriMENT ScuTples PIN To BAN cASiNas

Dear Editor:

In recent weeks I have seen let-
ters from people complaining about
group daycare centres in their neigh-
borhoods,

It seems to me that any inconve-
nience a daycare centre might cause
is minimal when weighed against the
_ benefits to our future generation.

If the noise of children’s play
during the day or a few extra cars
when they're being dropped off, is
disturbing, then maybe we need to
reconsider our priorities here, and

put things into perspective.

Children in daycare receive quali-
fied, supervised care where they
learn valuable social, emotional,
physical, creative and cognitive
skills to deal with their world and
with each other. .

Children, and how they are cared
for, will affect all of us at various
points of our lives, and I, for one,
would much rather deal with the
products of a positive environment!
Ruth Des Cotes
North Vancouver

Power to the provinces

Dear Editor:

It is time for British Columbians
to wake up to realize that Quebec is
not the problem; it is the unnatural
centralization of political and eco-
nomic power in Central Canada.

If this centralization continues,
Canada will break up, not for lin-
guistic or cultural reasons, but out
of severe and prolonged frustration.

Don Cherry is the epitome of
this central Canadian mentality
with his bad-mouthing of foreign
NHL players (who are superior to
many Canadian NHL and minor
league players) and wishing for a
talent tariff wall.

There is no question that this
centralization of economic and
political power has held up the nat-
ural development and progression
of British Columbia.

We need an immediate devolu-
tion of political and economic
power to the regions.

As we certainly will not be
amalgamated with the United
States, we should be-debating the
political entity we would like to
become and how we can remove
ourselves from the dominance of
central Canada.

Roger G. Nickel
North Vancouver

NV park plans an outrage

An open letter toe North
Vancouver City Council:

Taxpayers of North Vancouver
City: beware of the proposed plan
- to upgrade Victoria Park to the out-
rageous amount of $1.5 million, as
presented by Landscape Architects
Philips Wuori Long Inc.! (North
Shore News, July 1, page 9.)

No — this is not a printing error
as I found out from park planner
Leesa Strimbicki when I paid.my
property taxes on July 5.

Most people will agree that the
existing park is just fine the way it
is —- a welcome oasis among the
highrises that are still going up with
city council’s eager approval. The
quotation “that 108 trees require
special care and management” is

utterly laughable!

We have a beautiful park at
Lonsdale Quay to be enjoyed by
families, if they are not too busy
earning meney to pay their taxes
and city council’s salaries as well
(another raise is proposed, same
paper and date, page 5).

In these times of monetary
restraint it is a frivolous plan and
should be dropped at once.

lam a senior citizen, widowed,
living on old age pension of less
than $9,000 per year and, oh yes,
feel rightfully enraged at city coun-
cil’s wasteful management and lack
of conscience.

Shame on you!

Ingrena Klebe
North Vancouver

Montroyal connector not needed

Dear Editor:

The issue of the Montroyal con-
hector route has come up again at
North Vancouver District Council.
There always seems to be a lot of
emotion generated around the possi-
bility of extending Montroyal
Boulevard through to Lonsdale, but
not much logical consideration.

| live on Montroyal east of
Delbrook and am therefore directly
affected by whatever decision will
be taken.

As a taxpayer, | cannot be in
favor of a project that will cost at
least several hundreds of thousands

of dollars and bring the community
no discernable benefit.

The proponents of this project
are twu groups of honieowners in
the Prospect area and in the
Evergieen area who are plagued by
traffic using their streets to avoid the
Westview and Upper Levzls bottle-
neck.

However, there has just been an
announcement that the Westview
overpass is going to be built. This
overpass will change traffic pattems
in the Delbrook area dramatically by
removing the bottleneck that people
were trying to avoid.

To push through the connector
now, before we know whether it is
needed, would be fiscally irresponsi-
ble.

1 am sensitive to the traffic prob-
lems of the proponents of the coz-
nector but I am not convinced that
the connector would solve them.
There is also the problem of putting
more traffic onto Montroyal with its
steep, blind comers.

It seems an unnecessary risk to
the school children attending the
three adjacent elementary schools.
Cheryl M. Bird
North Vancouver