Brampton is an ever-growing city with a very diverse community. But that community is being threatened by anti-immigrant flyers.
The most recent one was put in people’s mailboxes just yesterday. A few months ago the same thing – a flyer questioning Canada’s mandate on diversity and whether Canadians and Europeans should accept their fate of becoming a minority group in places like Brampton.
Residents in the area say flyers like this are appalling and do not reflect the sentiment of the community.
“We are a country that takes in all races, creeds, colours, and religions, and that is what Canada was founded on. Why they would put something like this in people’s mailboxes, that is just not right,” one resident told Global News.
“There are so many nationalities and there is good and bad in everyone. I am a foreigner myself, I am Polish. No, I don’t agree with this and I think it is a terrible thing. Whoever wrote this is prejudice and a sick person,” another resident said.
READ MORE: Legal expert doubts anti-immigration flyers could prompt criminal charges
Immigration Watch Canada, a Vancouver-based group, has openly distributed similar flyers in places like Brampton, Markham, and Surrey, BC. The group questions Canada’s immigration system and the steady fall in numbers of Canada’s Caucasian and European communities as, they say, immigrants become the majority in this country.
Dan Murray is one of the spokespeople with Immigration Watch Canada. He says Canada’s immigration system and policy provide no justification as to why Canada is bringing in 250,000 immigrants each year. Murray says his group, via the flyers they distribute, want to raise awareness about Canada’s diminishing majority groups.
“The people of a European-based background who had lived in Brampton all their lives, their parents and grandparents and way further back than that had become a minority in Brampton in a very short amount of time – from 2001 -2011, the percentage of people of European background had dropped from 60 per cent to about 30 per cent so the flyer was pointing out.. is this a good thing to be happening? Is becoming a minority in your community an issue Canadians should be talking about? That’s the message – its pro-Canadian,” Murray told Global News.
But this story has a slight twist to it. The most recent flyers put in the mailboxes of Brampton residents did not come from Immigration Watch Canada.
Murray says he never authorized nor is aware of any such flyer. However, Immigration Watch Canada does have plans to distribute more flyers in places like Brampton and Markham where immigration numbers are high.
READ MORE: Premier Wynne introduces motion denouncing anti-immigration flyers
So it appears Brampton has been hit with a copycat. But, regardless of who is distributing the flyers, the damage is done, frustration levels are high, and the residents of Brampton are feeling the need to voice their concerns.
A Rally Against Racism event is being organized to take place outside Brampton City Hall on Friday August 7 at 6 p.m. NDP MP Jagmeet Singh has thrown his support behind the event and is urging residents to come out and help stop these flyers from circulating in the neighbourhoods. Word of the event has already started circulating on Facebook and Twitter with hopes many will come out to stop the racism facing the City of Brampton.
Comments