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The Brussels Post, 1979-10-03, Page 2sausins COOTARPO WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1979 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a Year. Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each. CP BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1979 Brussels Post Immigration myths REGISTERING FOR MINOR HOCKEY — Mothers, and fathers were out registering their children for minor hockey on Friday night as another hockey season prepares to start. Here, taking in registrations are Carman Machan and Marlene Rutledge. Behind the scenes by Keith Rouiston The myth that immigrants somehow 'steal' jobs is widespread. And it's not surprising, We see someone who is obviously new to Canada at work on the job, then we hear the latest unemployment statistics and—click!--we put one and one together and come up with ...the wrong answer. The Montreal Gazette cites a new study by the Quebec Minister of Immigration that analyzes the performance of 720,000 landed immigrants between 1951 and 1974, more than half of whom were workers. The study showed that while these new immigrant workers filled 22 per cent of the new jobs which were generated in Quebec economy during this period, they were also responsible for generating 25 per cent of these new jobs. Another of the study's findings were that the province's gross national product for this period would have been 11 per cent less were it not fJr this influx. Why? As the study observes, immigrants often have a marked des), e, will and need for pork and an entrepreneurial spirit. Such s ttistics do much to show the common sense of maintaining an open door immigration policy. It made this country what it is today, and it makes as much sense now. (from the Progress Enterprise, Lunen burg, N.B.) It's always better at home Sugar and spice By Bill Smile), How the years fly by Me and the old lady had another wedding anniversary last week. Holey ole Moley, hoW the years fly by! Usually, we remember our anniversary a week or ten days after it has gone by, and laugh about it. We don't believe much in anniversaries, as do some people who squabble all year, then go out to dinner with wine and roses, and are back pounding on each other within two days. One year I actually remembered and brought home eighteen yellow roses. She fainted dead away with shock, and when she came to, gave me the devil for wasting all that money. This year, I thought about it away back in August, and filed it away in my memory bank, determined to surprise her this year. Show her, by George, that there was some fire, or at least a few embers, underneath that wisp of smoke. My first thought was to sneak off with her engagement ring and have it re-set in 24-carat gold. I had to dismiss this idea as impractical for two reasons. First, I'd have to remove her finger to get the ring to the jeweller. Secondly, the price of gold went up so fast it made my eyes water when I read the financial page. Then I thought of a mink coat. But again there were two obstacles. One was the price of mink coats, which has soared almost as high as gold. The other was a conviction rve long held, that the only creature on this earth who needs a mink coat is a mink. Well, I worked my way down through an emerald brooch, for her Irish ancestry, a pearl necklace, diamond earrings. It was all disappointing. I knew I'd be ripped off with emeralds, she likes gold necklaces, not pearl, and she's always loSing one earring, like every other woman.. What is As useless as one diamond earring? I'd kill her if she lost one. that's one reason I got little done through August and part of September - worrying about the present for this one anniversary I would have ,remembered. I considered giving her a new car. But I can't even afford one for the two of us, let alone one for her. One after another I discarded seemingly brilliant inspirations. I even went to the lengths of planning to sneak out in the middle of the night and painting the back stoop, which she'd been trying to get me to do all summer. But 1 shuddered at the thought of painting out there, all alone in the cold and dark. Finally, it hit me like a thunderbolt, and a tidal wave of relief swept over me. I had it. Something to suggest her Mother Earth qualities. Something in green and gold, her favorite colors. Something that would suggest her sweetness, juiciness, tender- ness. Something she could get her teeth into, instead of junk like rings, necklaces, fur coats. Thirty-three cobs of corn! With the decision made, I relaxed, and promptly forgot all about our anniversary. She didn't, for once. On the fateful day, I arrived home from work, tossed out a few jollities, read her some interesting bits from the paper, asked what kind of day she'd had. All I got in return was cold shoulder and hot tongue. She was in a bad mood. Not because 1"d forgotten our anniversary. Just one of those rotten tempers Wornen get into once in a while because they've had to deal with the plumber and TV repairman, the vacuum cleaner went on the blink, all the woodwork in the house is "filthy", and they've scrubbed the kitchen and have a sore back. In the old days, I used to pet her and pat her and promise her, and she'd gradually come around, But I gave that up years ago, It was too hard on Me. Nowadays, I fire right back: "What the They came together in a strange way as a reminder of the strange universal way people act. One was a letter to the editor in a Toronto newspaper and the other was a lengthy article by Adrienne Clarkson on rediscovering her roots in ancient China. The letter was from a British immigrant to Canada who suggested that immigrants should love their new land or leave it. He criticized people from Britain or Jamaica or India or Pakistan or any other country who came here for freedom and then spent their time crying about all that was wrong with their new land and making unfavourable comparisons to their homeland. He's right of course. It's incongruous for people to escape the poverty and perse- cution of other lands to come to the wealth and freedom of Canada, then sit around and dream about their native land. Yet it's not something new. Native Canadians may be upset by the complaints about the imperfections of Canada from newcomers but they should remember that they are descended from people who had the same complaints. Take my own ancestors as an example. Although I'm pretty typical Canadian, a real mixed bag of nationalities, the main stalk of my family tree was from Scotland. The Scots came to Canada after they had been pushed off their land by their landlords. Others came to escape the poverty brought about by the industrial revolution. One would think that the new land that offered them the chance to escape the dead ends they faced in the old would make them turn their back on the past. But what did they do? Well they organized societies to keep the old language and culture alive in the new land. In my old hometown they had Highland games that drew thousands upon thousands of ex- patriot Scots from across the province. Even more strange was the fact that they were so willing to clasp to themselves the very symbols of the oppression that had driven them across the sea. We hear so much about Scots nationalism today, about how the Scots have been put upon by the English yet the Scots settlers have been among the strongest supporters of the monarchy in Canada. Sit John A. Mac- Donald said proudly "A British subject I was born and a British subject I will die." And he was the founder of the new land. But the Scots, the Irish driven here by the potato famines, the English from the slums of London and Liverpool were able to conveniently forget the misery of their homeland once they got a little prosperous hell's biting you? Cut out the self-pity. I work too, you know. Aw, go soak your head, crab," And soon. We usually have a good verbal set-to, sulk a little, and the air is cleared. But this time she speared rue, right in the middle of one of my finest perorations.• "Did you know this Was our anniversary?" Talk about hitting below the belt. I was stricken with remorse, shame and guilt. No details, but We kissed and made up and I did the dishes. Must say we've weathered the storm over here. They sought to transplant as much of the lifestyle of their homeland as possible. They romanticized "home." Only in the second and third generations did people begin to put the proper perspective on things and yet even a century later the ties some have to the homeland are still made of steel as witness the Monarchist League or the Orange Order. In her story as part of a whole issue of Weekend magazine about the , 30th anni- versary of the Chinese Revolution, Adri- enne Clarkson shows that much the same feelings were present in the Chinese who came to Canada. By the standards of most other immigrants the Chinese did not find Canada a land of plenty. They were allowed only the most menial of jobs in laundrys or restaurants or building rail- ways. They were persecuted by many self-righteous whites, But the tie to their homeland was strong. They scraped to- gether their money and sent it home to their villages in China. Ms. Clarkson visited villages that were built with the donations of overseas Chinese, many from Canada. Those Chinese in Canada could have used the money to make their own lives easier but they cared about "home." Unlike the Scots or Irish many even went back to China to die. Our friend the letter writer suggested that the new immigrants should love Canada or leave it but not try to change it. But what the East Indians and West Indians and the Italians and even the newly arrived Britishers are saying is just part of the way people are. I remember a childhood friend who moved to our neighbourhood from Komoka who used to anger the rest of us because he made it seem like the only interesting things that had ever happened in the world had happened in Komoka. What we need more of in this country today is wisdom: the wisdom to know that some things can't be changed, that some things are part of human beings. -We need to look more at our history and learn lessons it has to teach us. If we know that people coming to a new land, even a new town will always romanticize the place they came from then we can live much easier with the knowledge. Instead of getting angry, tense and retaliatory we can smile the wise smile of knowledge that this will pass. We call know that someday the sons and daughters of these new arrivals will feel the same anger toward the gripes of another generation of newcomers. pretty well. I was five years older than she when we were wed. I now look like an elder statesman of about silty-fives She looks about thirty-four. My hair is white, hers is black. Her teeth are white, mine are black. It's a little disconcerting when you go to a reception or some other function, the host reads the nanie,tag, and burbles? "Well, Bill Sihiley. I've heard of you. And you've brought your daughter along. How nice." But I wouldn't trade the old battlealie for a new one, even though she's laid a pretty good collection of scars on me, physically and otherwise.