As for someone mentioned about Rob Ford “not welcoming immigrants”, I would like to share a true story I heard recently with 51 readers here:
During my volunteering (canvassing) for Rob Ford, I met a guy originally from Somalia.
When he came to Canada as a refugee, he was given a bachelor suite by the government in downtown Toronto. Then his son joined him, living in the same suite. The administration in his apartment urged them to move out every day because they did not allow a father and son live in a bachelor suite. And he had no where to go.
He went to talk to the councilor in his area who told him “….The waiting list is so long that it takes 10 years to get an apartment. …”.
Then someone told him to ask Rob Ford for help and told him if “it makes sense, he will sure help you”. He made a phone call to Rob. Rob Ford picked up the call and agreed to meet him.
He told Rob his difficulty. Rob went to his apartment administration office and told them he wss going to find him an apartment when his son finished the school year because it was not good to have the boy transfer to a new school in the middle of school term. So the apartment administration stopped chasing him out.
By the end of the school term, he called Rob reminding him the promise (of finding an apartment for him) he made. The second day after the call, the community housing director called him and he got a two bed room apartment.
His son is now a student at Queen University.
He also told me something else:
Sometime later, there was another city mayor /councilor election, he called Rob Ford to apologize: “Sorry”, he told Rob Ford. “I can not vote for you because I do not live in your riding”. Rob Ford told him: “Vote whoever you can vote. You have no moral obligation to me”.
The guy told me he also met other Somalia immigrants accidently who received Rob Ford’s help including a taxi driver he met on the street.
I do not know how Rob Ford thinks about immigrants, but I do know Rob Ford helped this guy, a refugee from Somalia, in a big way and expected nothing in return.
On second thought, I would like to challenge any one who labels him/herself as love or welcome immigrants, have you sold all your possessions including your house or your savings and give them to immigrants or refugees who have nothing, such as those people who recently came as refugees by sea?
If no one has done that, then what is wrong to say “I’d like to take care of my own family first before looking after other people”? |