Media Centre

Press Releases: May 12, 2006

May 12, 2006

For Immediate Release:

Omar Alghabra calls for substantive measures in dealing with the Immigration file

Ottawa - Omar Alghabra, Liberal Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Erindale and Associate Critic for Social Development wrote to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration last week urging him and the Conservative government to address the immigration file that has been given little attention in the 2006 budget.

"Our country prides itself on being a role model for the rest of the world in how we integrate our immigrants and celebrate our cultural diversity," Omar Alghabra wrote in the letter. "The success of our immigrants is a key measure that we must use when evaluating how well we are utilizing the incredible talent our country attracts."

Canadians were concerned when they saw that Budget 2006 and the Throne Speech contained no concrete plan to address the substantive issues that many new Canadians are facing in their daily lives. Some challenges that the government ignored are:

1) A REAL plan to address the accreditation of foreign trained professionals

2) Huge backlogs and lengthy delays in the Immigration department

3) Undocumented workers and their families

4) The inexplicable difficulties in obtaining visitation and work visas processes

5) The weaknesses of the refugee determination system

6) The abolishment of Security Certificates

"The Conservative Party has very little credibility when it comes to dealing with issues of immigrants and ethnic communities," Alghabra said. "They have cancelled the position of Minister of Multiculturalism, they are heartlessly using children as pawns in ways we have never seen before, and the person they have selected to be in charge of government appointments holds the ethnic communities in contempt. The list goes on".

The Conservative Party's history and action to date demonstrates that they don't consider fixing the challenges faced by new Canadians to be a priority. Omar Alghabra will work hard with his colleagues to continue to exert pressure and raise awareness about these, and other issues of concern to hard working Canadians.