statue of Liberty

Saturday May 7, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 7, 2022

Let’s take a deep breath over Roe V. Wade

Could we all take a deep breath?

May 13, 2017

A leaked draft decision from the U.S. Supreme Court about abortion has created a bizarre political firestorm here in Canada. The most dangerous place to be these days is between a live microphone and a Canadian politician wanting to tell us how they will fight until their dying breath to protect Canadian women against the insidious evil emanating from south of the border.

Can we bring a little sanity to the situation?

First, the court has not banned abortions. A draft internal document was leaked on a case challenging abortion law which may or may not reflect the court’s final decision. If the leaked decision stands, abortion will lose its constitutional protection and individual state legislatures will be able to regulate or outlaw it. Although a dramatic change, it would not create a nationwide ban

This case has no effect on Canada where there hasn’t been an abortion law since 1988 when the Canadian Supreme Court found the existing law unconstitutional. No successive government was able to come up with a replacement and no major Canadian political party currently supports reopening the issue. Although several Conservative MPs and a second-tier leadership candidate have tried to raise restrictions, it is simply not on the political radar.

Friday May 6, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 6, 2022

The Supreme Court might never recover from overturning Roe v. Wade

October 23, 2020

On Monday, Politico published a draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling declaring that the Constitution guarantees Americans the right to end their pregnancies. The court later confirmed that the document, written in February, is genuine, but emphasized that it is not the court’s final word. We hope not. If the justices embrace the sweeping document, they will deal a grievous blow to freedom in the United States — and to the legitimacy of the court itself.

Such a leak from the court’s typically tight inner sanctum is itself astonishing. The court works on trust among justices and staff, so that the justices can deliberate frankly. Whether the document leaked from a conservative justice’s chambers, in an effort to lock in the support of others on the right for its far-reaching language, or from a liberal’s, in an effort to mobilize outside pressure against such a ruling, the leak represents a dire breakdown in norms and another dramatic sign of the court’s political drift.

Saturday January 13, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 13, 2018

Norway was once the kind of country Trump might’ve spit on. Now its people don’t even want to come here.

After telling lawmakers in an Oval Office meeting Thursday he doesn’t want more immigration from “shithole countries,” President Trump said the U.S. should bring in more people from countries such as Norway instead.

December 8, 2015

In the history of international migration to the U.S., it was a deeply ironic statement. (Many have also called it racist, since Trump used the vulgarity to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African nations.)

About a century ago, a wave of European migration drew many Norwegians to the U.S. At the time, they faced challenges assimilating and catching up with native-born Americans.

But now that the president wants Norwegians to come on over? They’re likely too successful to bother.

Norway may have been on Trump’s mind due to his recent meeting with the country’s prime minister, who would have reason to boast of her country’s economic success. Norway has ranked at the top of the U.N.’s Human Development Index for all of this century. By all measures, it has a high quality of life.

But, interestingly enough, that’s a relatively recent development.

For the vast majority of their shared history, including the period in the mid-to-late 1800s and early 1900s that comprised the biggest wave of immigration from what is now Norway to the United States, Norway might have been on the president’s so-called manure pile.

European immigrants of that time fueled many of the same fears about immigration we see today, and politicians fought to close the nation’s borders back then as successive waves of migrants from different European countries faced hostility upon arrival in the U.S. (Source: Washington Post) 

 

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Friday September 8, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 8, 2017

Trump’s plan to end DACA could lead to influx of ‘Dreamers’ in Canada

President Donald Trump’s threat to end protections for those who entered the U.S. illegally as children could spark a new wave of immigration and asylum requests, some analysts warn.

If that happens, they say, Canada’s already stressed systems would come under further pressure and potentially intensify a backlash against newcomers.

About 1.7 million illegal migrants to the United States – the vast majority of them Mexicans – are either registered or qualify for registration under a five-year-old policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA. The program, which Trump wants ended, allows them to obtain work permits and protects them from deportation.

If even a fraction of those look north, it would still be a significant number of so-called Dreamers who might try to make Canada home.

Guidy Mamann, an immigration lawyer and policy analyst in Toronto, says he has already started getting calls and emails asking if Canada is an option.

“Now that there is a real question as to whether or not there is a permanent solution for these DACA kids, many of them are going to start to look towards Canada for both legal and possibly illegal entry,” Mamann said. “I suspect that we’re going to start seeing a real flow at this point because there is so much uncertainty.”

Younger Mexicans in the U.S. – those without completed higher education or solid work experience – are unlikely to qualify under Canada’s normal immigrant requirements. As a result, some might opt to claim refugee status, a process likely to take several years to play out, even for those whose claims are rejected.

Martha Batiz, an award-winning Mexican-Canadian writer and academic, said Canada would do well to put a system in place to welcome Dreamers, many of whom have grown up in the U.S. and are therefore culturally adapted and speak English as well as Spanish.

Otherwise, she said, they might feel desperate enough to create the kind of risky and uncontrolled influx recently seen with Haitian and African migrants.

“Canada has to step up,” Batiz said. “It would be better to have some system in place, even if it’s an imperfect system, so that (Dreamers) can apply legally, and Canada can decide who they are going to welcome.” (Source: Globe & Mail) 

 

Wednesday July 11, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday July 11, 2012

Jason Kenney thanks himself in petition

If you want to sign a petition thanking Immigration Minister Jason Kenney for his efforts to reduce health benefits for refugees, look no further than his own website.

“We, the undersigned, thank Jason Kenney for his efforts to streamline benefits afforded to refugees (sic) claimants under the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) and bring them in line with the benefits received by taxpaying Canadians, including new Canadians,” says the petition posted to the personal website for the Conservative MP for Calgary Southeast.

A spokesperson for Kenney emailed a similar statement to the Toronto Star on Monday.

“Thousands of people have signed the petition since it was posted weeks ago. We encourage Star readers to visit JasonKenney.ca to sign the petition on the website to support the government in its efforts to make sure that bogus asylum claimants are not receiving better health care than Canadian seniors,” Alexis Pavlich wrote in the email.

Earlier this month, all refugee claimants — except for government-sponsored refugees, such as those who arrive in Canada as permanent residents — lost federally funded supplemental health benefits for prescription drugs, dental work, vision care and medical devices, such as walkers and wheelchairs.

Those refugees who are rejected after exhausting all appeals are also no longer eligible for free health care of any kind, unless their conditions pose a risk to public health or safety, such as infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV.

When the Conservative government eventually comes up with its list of designated “safe” countries, refugee claimants hailing from nations on that list will face the same restrictions as rejected claimants. (Source: Toronto Star)