Adaptive Intentions

Canada, like many other Western countries is faced with a true dilemma. For many European countries the dilemma they face is direct and brutal, that their treasured heritage as a nation, their culture, their vision of themselves as reflecting what they thought they were has been assailed in every conceivable manner. The intensely huge influx of Muslims seeking to escape the intolerable existence they suffer under totalitarian rulers, oppressive tribal and religious skirmishes, economic stagnation, has resulted in the changing face of Europe.

Denmark, Holland, Sweden, France, Germany and Great Britain all have large Muslim populations. They form isolated communities all too often, keeping themselves apart from others not of their faith. Some were brought over to Europe as cheap labour, on temporary work visas, but those work visas were extended interminably, and after decades and even generations of labour there is no humanitarian way that those temporary cheap labourers can be deported back to their countries of origin.

In North America the migration that brought large numbers of immigrants to the U.S. and Canada has not quite made the impression that it has in Europe, with its thousands of mosques and muezzins calling five-times-daily to prayer, overtaking the traditional church bells more relevant to the original inhabitants' lives. Now countries are looking askance at the now-apparent rashness of their willingness to absorb another complex religious culture with its political connotations.

Re-visiting their immigration laws and re-working the system of application and qualification, stressing suitability and adaptability to Western values. Which is precisely what Canada has done latterly, with its new information guide to immigrants, alerting them to the necessity of recognizing Canadian values, hugely inclusive of gender equality. Canada faces, like other countries that have absorbed large South-East Asian immigrants, traditional cultural values inimical to safety and security.

Where, given the recent publicity revolving around the repeated and atrocious horrors of 'honour killings' the government is now seriously considering a change to the Criminal Code to include 'honour killings', along with changes to the immigration-acceptance procedures. It is not only these dreadful occurrences where the lives of girls and women are threatened when they move beyond what their original culture demands of them.

Look at the daily reports of both petty and major crime in local newspapers and disproportionately Muslim and Arab names of malefactors leap to one's consciousness. Assaults, robberies, murders, break-ins, threats. And crimes associated with racism, where individuals and social, cultural and religious institutions of other ethnic minority communities are threatened by individuals and groups whose radical criminal behaviours grate against Canadian values.

Absent obvious adaptive skills and intentions immigration officers tasked with determining the suitability of would-be immigrants to fit into Canadian society, all such applicants should be turned away. More intensive training in psychology and questioning techniques that would reveal the mind-set of those anxious to re-locate to Canada are required to set aside those who seek to make it a useful base, without investing any kind of loyalty, or accepting Canadian values.

We cannot afford to dilute our security and safety, our values and commitments to our populations any further than has already been done, without experiencing ever greater disruptions and threats to the fundamental values we all hold dear. Those willing to adapt, to co-ordinate their deep religious loyalties with an equal loyalty to Canadian law, social constructs, and values will add to our pluralist ideal.

Those who find Canadian citizenship convenient and who use it as a base from which to continue conducting their tribal, ethnic, religious and political adversarial actions against others should no longer feel entitled to acceptance as Canadian citizens. Canada simply cannot afford it.