Respectful Man Would Rather Live in Grinding Poverty than Break Canada’s Laws
St. Albans, VT – Earnest Smith may be poor, but at least he’s a law abiding citizen.
Like many Vermonters, he works 12 hours a day, six days a week in a machiadora just south of the border for about fifty dollars a month. Smith and his wife and oldest son have worked there for 6, 5 and 2 years respectively. While the pay is pitiful by Canadian standards, it’s a princely wage in this impoverished region, and they hope to soon find a position for their younger son. The wages and conditions in non-Canadian-run factories are even worse.
In their city, crime runs rampant and everyone is poor. The judges and the police are owned by the mafia, and entrepreneurs must make a series of bribes before starting their businesses. Unemployment is widespread, and many young people are turning to drugs and prostitution.
Conditions are so desperate, in fact, that some even pay ‘coyotes’ to smuggle them across the border into Canada where they hope to make a better life. Experts estimate that as many as 5 million Americans are living and working in Canada illegally.
“The come here only for jobs,†decries Jacques Lafayette, spokesperson for the Canadian Alliance Against Immigration. “And many of them never leave Ontario and don’t even want to learn French. They come and they make use of our social welfare and are off the books so they don’t pay taxes. And to top it all off, they have no respect for our laws because they begin breaking them immediately just by crossing the border.â€
Some Americans cross the border illegally, but most, like Smith, have principles and stick to them. While he would like nothing more than to work in Canada, he is insistent about going through the proper channels. “I’m going to take the official route,†he told us in English. “no matter how long it takes.â€
“When I get there and I’m looking for work, I’m going to turn down everything that’s less than going rate for native Canadians, even if it means turning down a job that pays 5 times what I earn now and not being able to find anything. It’s very important to me that I don’t drive down wages for native Canadians, after all. I’ll also learn French and try to adopt the French way of life even though there are plenty of opportunities in English-speaking Canadian communities where I would feel much more at home.â€
“Because I’ll be there legally,†he continued, “I’ll be paying taxes to help support their social welfare system. But I’m also proud, so I won’t accept handouts from that system, even from the people whose job it is to sign me up for handouts. I know they’ll hound me like they hound everyone else because they need people to sign up in order to keep their jobs, but I’ll turn them down just because I don’t want to be a burden to society.â€
Finally, Smith was adamant about going through the proper channels. “I have a great deal of respect for Canada’s laws, so I’m determined to go through the official immigration process even if it takes 10 years longer or never happens at all. My family will remain living in grinding poverty for that time, but hey, it’s either take care of them or obey Canada’s restrictive and bureaucratic immigration laws, and my family just isn’t as important to me.â€