IMMIGRATION SYSTEM BROKEN?

As part of a Town Hall on Immigration with Liberal critic for Citizenship and Immigration John McCallum and former MP for Don Valley West and Liberal Candidate Rob Oliphant, residents of Don Valley West voiced their concerns and frustrations about the current government’s negative attitude toward immigrants and immigration.

About 70 participants gathered in Thorncliffe Park to discuss their experience of the current system and to offer suggestions and ideas to improve the situation. During the meeting, many participants shared their personal experience, mainly about the failures of Conservative immigration and settlement policies. Frustration over long wait times for family reunification, difficulty in getting visitor visas for relatives, increase in fees and a lack of service by current Conservative MP John Carmichael’s office were just some of the concerns voiced during the town hall.

The Hon. John McCallum and the Liberal candidate Rob Oliphant, who represented the federal riding of Don Valley West before 2011, declared that a Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau would take a different approach, and would prioritize people, by putting them first, and ensuring that the needs and concerns of all communities are heard in Ottawa.A federal election is expected to be called in the next few months, with a federal election rumored to be held in sometime in mid-October.