A year after celebrating its 150 birthday, Canada appears to have lost control of its land border with the United States, with potentially hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants and bogus asylum-seekers expected to enter the country in 2018.
After a huge influx in 2017 of Haitians trying to avoid being sent back to Haiti by the U.S., this year substantial numbers of Nigerian and Central American citizens are walking across the Quebec border and demanding asylum. The Quebec government estimates that more than 400 people could be crossing the border per day this summer, compared to 250 in 2017. Of course, this is only in Quebec, so the overall numbers could be much larger. At this rate, Quebec should see an influx of about 150,000 ‘asylum’ seekers and the whole of Canada probably double that, or about 300,000, equal to Canada's official immigration numbers.
Reception facilities, housing, medical and social services are stretched to breaking point and the frustration at this abuse of Canada’s traditional welcoming culture is running high among Canadians. Add to this the resentment felt by the hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants who have been on waiting lists for years and who have spent thousands of dollars to apply for residence visas. With the Liberal Party refusing to close the loophole in the Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S., it is sure that the government will be severely punished in the 2019 general election. Most Canadians welcome immigrants and appreciate multiculturalism, but do not agree with the liberal, George Soros-style ‘open-borders’ ideology and with policies that endanger Canada’s territorial integrity.
Johann van Rooyen
Political Analyst and Director of the Citizenship by Investment Research Consultancy
