: on the other hand

NOTES ON the Ali- Canada Boobyhatch:

You can believe Finance Minister Paul Martin is serious about saving money when he stops using words like caring and compassionate, by which is real- ly meant stupid. :

You can also believe him when Ottawa dumps the immigration and Refugee Board and replaces it with immigration Officers, instead of letting the refugee industry run the thing.

kt would save tens of millions. But the plan is to cut a tiny $5.7

. million from the IRB’s bloated budget of over $110 million and reduce the panels from two mem- bers to one. Pure cosmetics. The system will float happily atong.

No word of cutting the $60 million a year we pay lawyers for legal aid to immigrants. And no word, either, of cutting the $700 million we pay out in wel- fare for sponsored relatives...

My favorite compassion story:

“Canada vows aid for Lebanon.”

That was the headline. The story read: “Canada gave Lebanon's recovery plans a tan- gible nod of approval Friday by pledging $5.5 million to assist reform of the tax system and public-service sector.”

That slice of compassion

came from Foreign Affairs Minister Andre Oullett. _. Not to be outdone, Immigration Minister Sergio Marchi, our biggest compassion disaster since Trudeau, has given $1.3 million of your tax dollars

. to help Russia revamp its immi-

’ gration procedure and improve border control...

Jatinderpal Singh Ubhi has

been convicted of seven counts of dangerous driving causing death and injury, He's the Eas indian who failed to check th brakes of his dump truck at Horseshoe Bay.

A mother and her daughter were killed.

His lawyer says Ubhi has the mentatity of a seven-year-old.

How come he managed to get his driving licence’? Was that another example of compassion in

“action? How many other East Indian seven-year-olds are driving

big trucks?

In 1994 the NDP government compassionately presented the B.C. Teachers’ Federation with grants worth $1,293,914, This even though the BCTF is so fat it can hardly move...

In Prince George, Wayne Sullivan murders his wife with a handgun; he pleads he was drunk and incapable, which the clever shrinks categorized as a “disso- ciative condition.” He is now walking the streets a free man.

But compassion is selective. In Saskatchewan, Robert Latimer kills his hopelessly handicapped daughter by putting her in the cab of his truck and venting exhaust fumes into it. She could not walk, talk or feed herself. He gets 10 years.

In Toronto, columnist Peter Worthington says the worst cul- prits in the Airborne Regiment affair came from the Van Doos, a Quebec regiment. But they couldn’t be singled out by Ouawa because hitting the French wouldn’t be compassionate. So the whole Airborne was scrapped...

Trucks belonging to Canada Post display the picture of a grin- ning black man. He is at our ser- vice, it says. Before that, ads on the buses showed another grin- ning black man in soldier's uni- form. A stranger might think Canada is part of the Caribbean. Perhaps it is, we being so com- passionate.

A newspaper ad for the Vancity Credit Union shows a smiling Asiatic woman. “I'm Vancity,” it says. |

My question: do we belong to the Caribbean or to Asia?

In 1989, Daljit Singh Powar was deported from Canada. He had a long string of criminal con-

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victions, These included impaired driving, beating people up. and” stabbing a man while out on bail. Ve got 2% years.

The story in the Vaicouver Sua showed he had been ordered deported before, but was allowed lo stay. On compassionate grounds, of course, He was then arrested for possession of drugs and showed how compassionate he was by bashing his wife and knocking a tooth out.

While in jail he had fraudu- lently collected $4000 worth of

unemployment benefits.

His wife says she wants him back because she misses hint, so an appeal onnel on which another member of the Singh ciad sat 325% he can return to this country.

Wouldn't surprise me if the feds aren't paying his air fare for him. Canada is compassion coun- try...

t's a funny old world.

Patients with severe kidney problems are given free drugs while in hospital. But when they leave they have to pay for them

t . People with AIDS are luckier. They get their drugs free whether they are in hospital or not, Why? - because AIDS is mainly a homo- sexual disease and homosexuals count. Especially with the NDP, which is the compassion party incarnate... ; Of the 49,006 immigrants esti- mated to have arrived in B.C. last year over 80% were from Asia and 70% knew no English. - Be happy, Boobyhatch. And compassionate.

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