[Newsbot]

Filibuster Cartoons
Title: Red-hot refugees (click to view)
Date: August 17, 2010

A boat carrying 490 migrants from the nation of Sri Lanka docked at the shores of British Columbia late last week, unloading its human cargo directly into the Canadian refugee system. The migrants, most of whom are from Sri Lanka's Tamil minority community, are all eager to become permanent residents of Canada, hopefully by quickly securing some sort of legal status, but not necessarily. Canada's rugee system is, after all, among the most generous in the world. The second you touch soil you're pretty much set — deportations are notoriously complicated and rare, especially when the illegal migrant comes from an ethnic community already well-established in Canada, as the Tamils are.

The Tamils are uniquely problematic, in fact, precisely because they are so prominent in Canada. As was well documented in the 2004 book Cold Terror, by Stewart Bell, Canada's generous embrace of Tamil refugees has transformed the country into a leading exporter of Tamil-based terrorism in Sri Lanka, as the expat community organizes and fund-raises abroad in order to perpetuate a civil war back home. The Conservative government has pledged to begin cracking-down on such activities, but it's obviously hard if the immigration system just keeps importing more and more of the sorts of people who are stirring up the trouble in the first place.

Until the existing refugee system can be fixed, there's been a lot of talk about how to prevent such "boat people" from landing on Canadian soil in the first place. Some have suggested off-coast detention sites, which are popular in Australia, as a way to process and sort legitimate refugees from the bogus, while also limiting their access to cities and ghettos where they might otherwise disappear. The immigration lobbies would obviously raise a fuss if such plans ever came to pass, but implementing more draconian measures seems fairly unavoidable at this point.

The fact remains that Canada has a significant illegal immigrant problem, born by the larger problem of an immigration/refugee system that places a high premium on the admittance of individuals with very little relevance to the country's economic, cultural, and security needs. We'll see if this latest batch proves to be any sort of tipping point.

Comment on Facebook

[kettal]

I think the CPC is drooling right now. A whole boat full of wedge issues to stir up the xenophobes and sweep their recent embarrassments under a rug.

Don't expect any progress on refugee policy reform, though. Harper wants this to be an election issue for many years to come.

[CanadianJeff]

Positive aren't you?
seriously though there has to be a better way of doing this both for security and the tax payers dollars.

Each of these refugees are likely to cost a boatload (pun not intended) of cash to process and with two more ships supposedly on the way this will get VERY costly.

I think Harper will do something and fast or this will become a vote killer.

[herbie]

Elvis has left the building.
He could have done something. He could've gained support from all the aforementioned xenophobes plus the rest of us who are just fed up with cue jumpers.
But in his usual fashion, he blew it by not turning the boat around and still tries to make a desperate play to win the crime symps.
He's flat out of ideas, offers no difference in policies or economics.
Time to go.

[Psudo]

herbie wrote:

Elvis has left the building.
He could have done something.

Yes, Elvis took the secret to immigration to his grave. So sad.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

herbie wrote:

Elvis has left the building.
He could have done something. He could've gained support from all the aforementioned xenophobes plus the rest of us who are just fed up with cue jumpers.
But in his usual fashion, he blew it by not turning the boat around and still tries to make a desperate play to win the crime symps.
He's flat out of ideas, offers no difference in policies or economics.
Time to go.

And replace him with whom exactly? Quite frankly, those that are in the bullpen hoping to get in the game I wouldn't give my winter beater keys to, let alone the keys to the country. Not that Harper is worth a shit either.

[bootlegga]

herbie wrote:

Elvis has left the building.
He could have done something. He could've gained support from all the aforementioned xenophobes plus the rest of us who are just fed up with cue jumpers.
But in his usual fashion, he blew it by not turning the boat around and still tries to make a desperate play to win the crime symps.
He's flat out of ideas, offers no difference in policies or economics.
Time to go.

Good points, but who is going to replace him? Layton? Iggy? None of them are any better.

Time for a revolution!

[DerbyX]

bootlegga wrote:

herbie wrote:

Elvis has left the building.
He could have done something. He could've gained support from all the aforementioned xenophobes plus the rest of us who are just fed up with cue jumpers.
But in his usual fashion, he blew it by not turning the boat around and still tries to make a desperate play to win the crime symps.
He's flat out of ideas, offers no difference in policies or economics.
Time to go.

Good points, but who is going to replace him? Layton? Iggy? None of them are any better.

Time for a revolution!

Mr Canada might be convinced to run for election.

[CKASlacker]

I have to say that I find the image of the Tamil-ies particularly revolting -- enough so that I don't like looking at it.

However, it doesn't take away from the message of the comic -- actually, probably adds to it now that I think on it.

[Scape]

bootlegga wrote:

herbie wrote:

Elvis has left the building.
He could have done something. He could've gained support from all the aforementioned xenophobes plus the rest of us who are just fed up with cue jumpers.
But in his usual fashion, he blew it by not turning the boat around and still tries to make a desperate play to win the crime symps.
He's flat out of ideas, offers no difference in policies or economics.
Time to go.

Good points, but who is going to replace him? Layton? Iggy? None of them are any better.

Time for a revolution!

Bingo.

[Gunnair]

bootlegga wrote:

herbie wrote:

Elvis has left the building.
He could have done something. He could've gained support from all the aforementioned xenophobes plus the rest of us who are just fed up with cue jumpers.
But in his usual fashion, he blew it by not turning the boat around and still tries to make a desperate play to win the crime symps.
He's flat out of ideas, offers no difference in policies or economics.
Time to go.

Good points, but who is going to replace him? Layton? Iggy? None of them are any better.

Time for a revolution!

How has it come to this? I don't know if I've ever seen a more bleak poitical leadership outlook... ever.

Times like this (shudder) I can understand the sentiments of seperatism and going our own way.

That'll come back and bite me if Kenmore reads this.

[martin14]

Gunnair wrote:

bootlegga wrote:

herbie wrote:

Elvis has left the building.
He could have done something. He could've gained support from all the aforementioned xenophobes plus the rest of us who are just fed up with cue jumpers.
But in his usual fashion, he blew it by not turning the boat around and still tries to make a desperate play to win the crime symps.
He's flat out of ideas, offers no difference in policies or economics.
Time to go.

Good points, but who is going to replace him? Layton? Iggy? None of them are any better.

Time for a revolution!

How has it come to this? I don't know if I've ever seen a more bleak poitical leadership outlook... ever.

Times like this (shudder) I can understand the sentiments of seperatism and going our own way.

That'll come back and bite me if Kenmore reads this.

Yup.

Our leaders better be careful, it's time like these that funny fringe
parties have a history of popping up.

It's a good thing that our system has been created to prevent a lot of that.


No Republic, no proportional representation, etc. etc.

It's all good.

[JJ]

CKASlacker wrote:

I have to say that I find the image of the Tamil-ies particularly revolting -- enough so that I don't like looking at it.

However, it doesn't take away from the message of the comic -- actually, probably adds to it now that I think on it.

Heheh, that's cool. I like drawing things that can elicit revulsion.

[kettal]

I think they look delicious. Reminds me of a Japanese dish which is mushrooms rolled in thin slice of cured beef.