有感于万锦市长Frank Scarpitti的回应

上周末以华人为主的小型集会活动在万锦市政府举行,出乎意料在最后发展到不和双方打起来,让十多位警察赶到现场,严阵以待。至于集会的目的就是要阻挡市长Frank Scarpitti暂时在万锦接纳一批难民入住。事情已经过去好几天,似乎还没有完,请愿书给市长、给省府,为何会发展成这样呢?笔者认为,当然是个别人搭建的舞台,还准备唱大戏呢?在这里,笔者分享一下想到和看到的信息。

第一,听说当天活动聚集了100多人,笔者不在现场,自然无法查证。但有一个问题,倒是引起笔者去思考,正如万锦居民,社区热心人士Carmen所点明,当天参与集会的人中有多少是本地居民呢?他们到底能够代表谁呢?在华人社区微信圈,除平时发布文稿之外,大部分时间笔者都是潜水。不过,在集会之后几天里,几个圈里面笔者发现参与当天活动的人有远道从Oakville或更远地方赶过去的。看来万锦市长Frank Scarpitti所宣扬的“万锦是华人之都(Chinese Capital)”还是蛮有吸引力的,可惜这些人并不是很珍惜这一美誉。(笔者真担心市长对华人社区会产生隔阂!但作为一名成熟政客,笔者又期望他会正确处理的!)

第二,在活动前,组织者在许多微信圈宣称,这次集会是没有党派和宗教色彩的活动。而目前从报道中看到,在10月份计划参加万锦市选的多位候选人是组织者,看来这些华人还是很能够“掩耳盗铃”的,不是吗?从另外一个角度看,笔者认为,假若政治人物没有“先天下之忧而忧,后天下之乐而乐”的大度,而天天打着自己小算盘的话,拉帮结派,这样的人即使侥幸上去了,也会为自己的小圈子服务,绝对不会为大多数服务,肯定不会得到选民的拥戴。(这让笔者想到今天的安省省长,不知道有多少人在后悔当初投票所选吧!)

第三,作为移民,笔者来加拿大已经近20年,算得上是老公民了。自从有资格投票之后,笔者没有错过一次,这说明笔者还是非常关注政治,珍惜作为一位公民的权利和义务。在听说该次集会时,笔者就认为,无论是作为主人,还是作为客人,阻挡难民入住万锦都是不可取的。在一个微信圈里,笔者抛出了一个观点,让许多人抓狂不已。话是这么说的,“对于加拿大政府来说,移民和难民真的有区别吗?”(这个问题值得每一个人去思考,并找到正确的答案!)对于难民和移民自身来说,两者都是希望能过上更好的日子,选择来到了加拿大。而从过往历史看,难民对加拿大的贡献并不输给移民,假若按比例计算的话,可能还会超越移民。当然,这个结论可能需要学者去探讨,笔者只是这么一说。希望读者能够读出市长的画外音,“谢天谢地,其他难民来到这个国家的时候,这些示威者还不在这里。”

最后一点,希望引起华社的重视,笔者正在扼要摘录加拿大华人发展简史!假若您真的关注华人社区的成长,您应该花一点时间去了解加拿大华人的历史状况,今天华人所拥有的地位是老一辈华人流血、流泪奋争而来,并非从天上掉下来的。作为华裔参政,您本身就得是一个华裔精英,对华人社区建树要有所为,才能为这个国家有所作为。假若您做不到这一点,请您多下功夫准备吧!(文/牛弹琴)

附录:

Frank Scarpitti回应反对安置难民的示威和请愿

万锦市长Frank Sacarpitti表示,那些反对在约克地区的酒店里安置两百名难民申请人的示威者是根据“许多不实信息”采取行动,并且想制造恐惧。他对散布不实信息的人的批评更为激烈。他8月2日在接受CBC采访时说,那些散布不实信息的人是可耻的。本周早些时候,联邦政府宣布将从8月1日起在包括万锦市在内的约克地区暂时安置150到200名难民申请人。Frank Scarpitti说,这并不是答应联邦政府向成千难民申请人敞开万锦市大门。这只是帮一下多伦多这个邻居。

这项措施引起了抗议和请愿。万锦市二号选区候选人蒋嘉勤是这些活动的组织者之一。他表示,欢迎难民申请人来加拿大没有问题,但是万锦市没有接纳他们的能力。他还指责市政府在这个问题上没有征求市民意见,“也不说多少人要来,住多长时间,是些什么人,从哪里来。”他表示,他们只是向市长提出这些问题而已。已经收到请愿书的Frank Scarpitti说,他不知道在请愿书上签名的一千多人里有没有人好好读过它,因为竟然没有人发现万锦市名“Markham”都被拼错了。他还以加拿大著名记者彼得.纽曼(Peter Newman),前加拿大总督武冰枝和米凯伊.让为例,指出难民为加拿大做出过巨大贡献。“谢天谢地,其他难民来到这个国家的时候,这些示威者还不在这里。”(文/吴薇,来源:RCI)

CBC报道原文:

Markham mayor slams protesters of Ottawa’s plan to house up to 200 asylum seekers in York Region

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti slammed protesters who opposed Ottawa’s move to pay for up to 200 asylum seekers to stay in hotels across York Region earlier this week, saying their actions are “based on a lot of misinformation” and seek to create a culture of fear.

“Shame on these people who have spread misinformation,” he told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Ottawa announced that between 150 to 200 refugee claimants will be housed in York Region, which includes Markham, starting Aug. 1.

The move, while only temporary, will see hundreds of families lodged across the Greater Toronto Area until Sept. 30 to give Toronto and the province time to develop a strategy to deal with a recent surge in refugee claimants.

“It wasn’t a commitment to the federal government to blow the doors wide open and take thousands of asylum seekers in Markham,” said Scarpitti. “It was really about helping out a neighbour in the city of Toronto.”

But the federal government’s help sparked protests outside Markham city hall and an online petition of 1,000 signatures that landed on Scarpitti’s desk.

Charles Jiang, a Ward 2 municipal council candidate, was one of the organizers at the helm of the petition and protest.

Markham residents “deserve to be consulted,” Jiang told CBC Toronto on Wednesday. He explained while there’s no problem with welcoming asylum seekers into Canada, he highlighted that the city “doesn’t have the capacity” to accommodate families.

“They never said how many are coming, how long they’re going to stay, who are they, where are they coming from,” said Jiang. “We’re throwing those questions back to our mayor, that’s all it is.”

The mayor discredited Jiang’s claim on Thursday, noting he is concerned when organizers who spearheaded the online petition and protest are a group of candidates running for Markham city council in the upcoming election and “misspelled the name of the municipality they’re running in.”

“That kind of indicates the way in which there’s focus on this thing if they can’t even spell Markham right,” he said.

Scarpitti added he also finds it “alarming” that none of the 1,000 people who signed the petition noticed that Markham was misspelled.

“I even wonder if they read the petition or were they just told, ‘Sign up because there’s something bad coming to Markham?” he asked.

“Thank goodness these protesters weren’t around when other refugees came to this country,” he said, noting the accomplishments of Peter Newman, Michaëlle Jean and Adrienne Clarkson that have contributed to the fabric of Canadian society.

“Thank goodness these protesters weren’t around to send these people back because where would Canada be today?”

 

2 评论

  1. 说得好!“谢天谢地,其他难民来到这个国家的时候,这些示威者还不在这里!”我都为这些人感到脸红!难道这些人移民来到这里,真的是想来“闹革命”的吗?唉!

  2. 作为万锦市民,我更希望看到候选人讨论一下跟我们市民生活更紧密相关的事,比如16街堵车问题。16街北的高尔夫球场要建成居民区了,会增加几千户居民,现在16街已经经常堵车了,rush hour 简直崩溃,再出现几千户,马路都成停车场了,市政府打算怎么解决?

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