Letters

Unholy alliance

Re: Illegal Aliens Should be Sent Back, Aug. 24.

DIANE Francis ends her diatribe on immigration and immigrants with the self-serving comment: "It's really that simple and has nothing to do with bigotry."

Unfortunately, it's not that simple and has a great deal to do with bigotry. Take her unfortunate alliance with Paul Fromm and his "Canada First Immigration Reform Committee." No one in Canada has a clearer record of unvarnished bigotry than Mr. Fromm in his various incarnations. Mr. Fromm was still in college when he invented the ultra-conservative Edmund Burke Society. When that didn't go well, he joined the openly fascist, swastika-sporting Western Guard.

Realizing that openly fascist groups won little consideration from Canadians, Mr. Fromm invented a series of front groups with seemingly respectable names such as Canadian Association for Free Expression and "Foreign Aid Reform." Despite their bland titles, all of them sought to exploit the anxiety some Canadians feel about immigration. He has fought mightily for the right to free expression for Holocaust-deniers such as Ernst Zundel and racists such as James Keegstra.

In the presence of a gang of young skinheads he shouted "Scalp 'em!" at native leader A. R. Bobiwash during a meeting at Toronto's city hall. He was removed as a teacher by the Peel Board of Education because of his repeated appearances at racist rallies and memorials.

None of this can be shrugged off with the claim that Mr. Fromm is being punished for a lack of "political correctness." Nor can he claim that he is being unfairly labelled a racist.

As for Ms. Francis, her insistence that anyone who arrives in Canada uninvited should be sent back automatically without a hearing or a chance to prove their worthiness, is dangerously wrong. We look back in scorn at those Swiss officials who shouted, "The lifeboat is full" and refused entry to Jews fleeing Hitler. We look back with shame at our refusal to allow the passengers of the ship St. Louis to find shelter in Canada. On the other hand, we look back with pride at our rescue of thousands of Vietnamese from the refugee camps of South Asia.

Let's be honest. Canada does not admit immigrants because of our greatness of heart. We invite them to settle here because we need them. We recruited peasants from eastern Europe because we needed them to work our farms, mines and lumber mills. We invite Chinese because we benefit from their entrepreneurship and scientific scholarship.

Ms. Francis has taken a dangerous course in trying to buttress her argument by identifying with a man with a dubious ideology. One cannot help but remind her of the old saying, "Birds of a feather flock together." Which way are you flying, Ms. Francis?

Sol Littman,
Canadian representative,
Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Toronto.

Our opinion

  THIS letter belonged in the Birds of a Feather department. Canada needed immigrants like Mr Sol Littman like it needed a large hole in its corporate Canadian head. Letters like this only serve to increase the spread of anti-semitism, which Mr Littman claims to abhor.