Pierre Trudeau’s drastic changes to immigration laws not only put a stop to Italians coming in numbers to Canada but Europeans from non-English- and non-French-speaking countries were also shut out. He opened the doors wide to refugees, however, so much so that hundreds of thousands rushed to our shores. Our incredibly generous, taxpayer-funded social-security benefits made Canada all the more attractive. These benefits included free dental care and prescription drugs, things to which many working Canadians were not entitled. It was also easy to claim refugee status.
This had a major impact on Local 183. Thousands of Portuguese landed at Pearson International Airport and with the advice of unscrupulous immigration consultants claimed refugee status on the grounds that they were persecuted at home for being Jehovah’s Witnesses, never mind that some were wearing gold crucifixes that identified them as Roman Catholics. Nonetheless, the Portuguese had not come to take advantage of our generous benefits. They wanted to work. Generally, I have found the Portuguese to be a hard-working people and I thank God they came to Canada with other non-English-speaking nationalities to contribute to our economy.
The fact is that without illegal immigrants like these the residential construction industry would have suffered a serious shortage of workers that would have substantially increased the cost of homes. Of course, I am opposed to illegal immigration in principle. I waited for more than two years in Rome before being granted an immigration visa and I followed the rules. However, the present immigration system, designed to protect the French language, is based on points, with two of the most important criteria being education and knowledge of our official languages. The system accepts educated immigrants who come to the country wanting good jobs. This creates more competition for young Canadian university graduates, our sons and daughters whom we have educated at considerable expense. It also assumes that our sons and daughters will perform the so-called humble and heavy jobs, chopping wood and fetching water, since the immigration policy does not bring in this kind of worker. Many employers cannot find the skilled or semi-skilled workers they require. The upshot is that provinces like Ontario are experiencing a shortage of the kind of workers that were the backbone of our economy until Trudeau’s changes. He introduced a bad policy.
While they did not speak one of the official languages and had limited education, the entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic of these earlier generations of immigrants served us well. Many went on to launch businesses of incredible scale such as Magna International, Royal Plastic, and Saputo Cheese, to mention just a few among many thousands of entrepreneurial case studies. It is hard to imagine what our economy would look like without these thousands of businesses.
Immigration policies should be based on two pillars: humanitarian aspects, such as family reunification, and the needs of the Canadian economy. Our economy requires all kinds of immigrants, from the highly educated to the skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled. There are many jobs Canadians will not take, a reality which is true in many industrialized countries.
We should also protect bilingualism. It enriches the nation and we should be proud of our French and English official languages. But we can take it too far. In 2002, federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Elinor Caplan introduced even more stringent rules regarding language requirements. In response, David Crane, the former Toronto Star economics editor wrote a couple of columns noting that people like Frank Stronach, who built the Magna auto parts empire, would not be admitted under the new rules. “If Canada’s new immigration rules, sneakily announced by Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan just before Christmas, had been in effect when a young Stronach had applied to come here, he would not have been allowed into Canada,” wrote Crane. “The Austrian-born graduate of his country’s apprenticeship system would not have had adequate entry points. Yet Stronach has created thousands of jobs in Canada, as have other immigrants who would not be allowed in Canada today.”
Crane said it “is hard to imagine a more short-sighted and reactionary immigration policy than the one Citizenship and Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan snuck through. . . . Her rigid new policy ignores Canada’s changing demographics. Immigrants now account for about 70 per cent of Canada’s labour force growth and, as Caplan has admitted, will grow to 100 per cent in the not-too-distant future as Canadians continue to age.”
I saw all of this coming. In the fall of 1986, I was invited to meet with the Portuguese Authority in Lisbon. Along with two of our Portuguese representatives, Tony Lucas and Tony Dionisio, I brought along Joe Carraro, also a fluent Portuguese speaker, and Carmine Principato, the business manager of Labourers Local 506. I also reached out to the Canadian Labour Congress. They sent Secretary Treasurer Richard Mercier to join our group and add some prestige since we were going to meet the president and prime minister of Portugal.
In Lisbon we were well received by President Mario Soares and Prime Minister Cavaco Silva. We were also warmly greeted by Ms. Manuela Aguirar, a very attractive and gracious woman, who held the title of Secretary of the Community, the equivalent of a minister in our government.
On a personal note, I took advantage of the trip to visit the Fatima Basilica complex. I also went to Lucas’s village in the north of Portugal and Dionisio’s hometown, close to the sea. I came away convinced that Canada needs more immigrants like the Portuguese who only want to work hard and build a better country. I strongly disagreed with the former Immigration Minister Jason Kenney who once said we should insist on the knowledge of language to better integrate immigrants. Tell that to the Ukrainians who opened the west and the many other ethnic groups who are now fully integrated into Canadian society but who came to this blessed country without speaking a word of English or French.
This was long before our multiculturalism policies were established. Sadly, some other immigrant groups, while they have a knowledge of the language, are reluctant or find it difficult to integrate into the dominant culture. And again, why should they bother? Is this not a multicultural country?
Toward the end of the 1980s, the federal government was talking about deporting thousands of illegal Portuguese immigrants. I considered it my duty to do something about it because I represented thousands of them through Local 183. I also knew from personal experience what a terrifying thing it is to be threatened with deportation. It had left a bitter taste that I carried for years. I was also concerned about the economy because losing all those workers would cripple the residential construction industry. One of our employers’ trustees, Don Andrew, had a good political connection with Barbara MacDougall, the federal minister of immigration. He arranged a meeting with her at a downtown hotel suite. There we pointed out the contribution of the illegal Portuguese immigrants and asked her to legalize their status. MacDougall understood both the humanitarian and economic problems and suggested that if any “illegal immigrants” were to return to Portugal, she would instruct the Canadian Embassy to issue them (excepting those with criminal records) a permanent resident visa they could use to return to Canada.
We shook hands on the deal although she cautioned us to keep everything discreet because other nationalities with thousands of illegal immigrants were also asking for amnesty. To facilitate the resident visas, we opened a special office at the Galleria Shopping Centre at Dupont and Dufferin, staffed with Portuguese-speaking employees. Local 183 contributed $50,000, Local 506 $25,000, and a number of other contractor associations made additional donations. A special letter was given to applicants to be presented to the Canadian embassy in Lisbon. Everything went like clockwork. More than 14,000 Portuguese went home, visited the Canadian embassy there, presented their letters, and were given a visa to return with residency status. Ironically, the majority were not even members of the Laborer’s Union. The Portuguese community owes thanks to Barbara MacDougall and the Mulroney Conservatives.
In 1993, after my retirement, the Portuguese government awarded me a gold medal to commemorate my efforts on behalf of those immigrants. I treasure it and it has a special place among other awards, such as the Award of Merit presented to me by Toronto Mayor Art Eggleton on March 9, 1989, and the President’s Award from the prestigious National Italian American Foundation, which was facilitated by LIUNA General Secretary Treasurer Arthur E. Coia.