Landed Immigrants Without ID Cards Can't Get Home

Please correct my history if it is wrong, but wasn\'t there a large list containing the names of families that were Jewish prior to WWII? I am not saying the Landed Immigrants ID card is the same thing, but one can see the parallels. This is trouble already.

Oh please! Like I\'ve said before, get your card early, or stay in the country until you get it. If whiny-people are so desperate to leave, they can get out and stay out, or wait the necessary time to get the proper documentation. Canada IS allowed to make its own rules. Don\'t like it? Become a citizen some day, and you won\'t need an ID card. This is simply better documentation, to better prevent forgery -it has nothing to do with discrimination.

Actually this is one thing I do agree with, since Canadian citizens must have passports to come and go from their homes, why would landed immigrants be allowed more freedom than Canadian citizens? This has been coming for some time, so they have been warned, I wouldn\'t leave the country without a passport and expect to get back home,why did they?

It's so sweet how any conversation about immigrants or people of colour seems to end up with comments like they should "stop whining" *roll eyes* <p> Many landed immigrants were not ALLOWED to get the cards precisely BECAUSE they had applied for Canadian citizenship (see <a href="http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2003/12/19/291500.html">Lack of identity cards threatens landed immigrants</a>), leaving them afraid to travel. There was also the case of the man who applied four months ago and still had not received his card for some inexplicable reason--he was fortunate because they let him back into the country with just a warning (see: <a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1073004313134_78?s_name=">36 refused entry without permanent resident ID</a>. <p> Plus, if you think the ID cards don't and won't affect citizens, think again. The ID cards for permanent residents/landed immigrants may be opening the door for a national ID card. <p> From a column by John Ibbitson, whom in this case is at least providing useful information (see:<a href="http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_2090.shtml">We'll keep our fingerprints to ourselves</a>): <P> "The United States is hoping to launch the new US-VISIT program next year, although the program is seriously behind schedule and facing funding cuts from Congress. If and when implemented, US-VISIT will require everyone entering the United States to register upon arrival and at departure. The means of registration will be though some kind of biometric identifier: an optically scanned fingerprint, iris, or other unique body part. (Don't go there.) U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge has promised the Canadian government that our citizens will be exempt from US-VISIT. However, Congress has not yet ratified that exemption, and even if Canadian citizens are allowed through without being scanned, permanent residents (what we used to call landed immigrants) will not be. <p> In order to keep our border open, then, the permanent resident's identity card, which already exists, will need to contain a biometric identifier. Sooner or later, the Canadian passport will probably need the same thing. <p> In that case, goes the argument, why not take the next step and simply issue everyone with a biometrically encrypted identity card? Not only would it satisfy American (and eventually European) security concerns, but such a card would make it easier to thwart terrorists, as well as those pettier criminals who now routinely steal people's identities in the form of credit card, bank card or health card theft." <p> So just remember--as we do to our immigrants, we will eventually do to our citizens. Immigrants are just the more vulnerable group to pick on first, thanks in large part to people who dismiss their problems as "whining." <p> As a PS I'd like to bring up a couple of things. <p> One, remember how the <a href="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29534">US wanted to change the rules so that landed immigrants in Canada from certain countries would have to face new visa requirements to get into the U.S.</a>, and that was put on hold in part because "permanent residents of Canada are subject to the same criminal and terrorist background checks as immigrants applying for Canadian citizenship"? <p> And two, anti-terrorism legislation adopted in Canada has already been very harsh towards landed immigrants, who prior to Sept. 11 were generally regarded as almost the same as Canadian citizens and as "future citizens." <p> From <a href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/oct2001/can-o13.shtml">Canadian government attacks civil liberties:</a> Bill C-11 drastically reduces the rights of refugees and landed immigrants. Indeed, Immigration Minister has boasted that the law includes “very harsh measures.” Under the legislation, the determination of who is deemed to be a political refugee—that is someone fleeing the danger of persecution—is to be made in 72 hours, rather than as at present over a period of six months. Moreover, Immigration agents are to be given the power to immediately expel anyone they suspect of being a security risk to Canada without even the benefit of a hearing. <p> Bill C-11 also greatly increases the right of the state to deport landed immigrants—a power which in a period of political unrest could be used to target opponents of the government, as it was in the 1930s. Under the legislation, any landed immigrant convicted of an offence for which one can be sentenced to more than two years in prison is liable to deportation, irrespective of how many years that person has lived in Canada.<br>

<i>Under the legislation, any landed immigrant convicted of an offence for which one can be sentenced to more than two years in prison is liable to deportation, irrespective of how many years that person has lived in Canada.</i><p> Yea, we all know that dangerous criminals, such as nanny's working <b>two</b> jobs are identified to the public and deported immediately. . . <p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

Thanks Susan for the clarification, I guess my fear is the lax attitude of our immigration, when they report that 5000 (I think) people are living in this country illegally and that immigration hasn\'t got a clue where they are...It makes me nervous, and I think that people should be given landed immigrant status, and the opportunity to become Canadian citizens but it seems that our immigration is not very well organized and that they often don\'t do the proper security checks. You hear of so many situations of abuse of the system that it\'s bound to make you suspicious. People who use Canada to make their money, to take back to other countries, not invest in Canada and not care about this country. That is the immigration aspect I am against. I want to know that proper security checks are being done, so that criminals are not coming here to set up new criminal activity or use this country to facilitate other illegal activity somewhere else.

That is an ignorant viewpoint from someone who has had too much priviledge and doesn't deem it necessary to look out for their neighbor. That poor attitude is just how citizen's rights go down the tubes. The price of democracy is eternal vigilence. And by the way, I may be a landed immigrant, but I pay the same Canadian taxes as you. And don't you think, when you pay money for a government service, they should deliver what they promise?