- yesterday
Last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford dropped a bombshell: the Ontario Government would start issuing its own work permits for asylum seekers in the province.
The blowback – especially from conservatives – was swift, with many asking whether Ford’s move wouldn’t just encourage more asylum seekers of questionable legitimacy to flock to Ontario to get jobs.
Is this what Canada’s largest province, with growing unemployment and already overstretched social services, really needed? Who exactly was demanding this policy change from Ford?
Just days later, Ford reversed himself, as is so often prone to do. But why does this supposed ‘conservative’ premier keep pushing some very un-conservative policies?
In the first episode of ‘Not “Sorry”’ host Alexander Brown takes us through Doug Ford’s latest ‘bright’ idea on immigration, and his subsequent reversal.
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The blowback – especially from conservatives – was swift, with many asking whether Ford’s move wouldn’t just encourage more asylum seekers of questionable legitimacy to flock to Ontario to get jobs.
Is this what Canada’s largest province, with growing unemployment and already overstretched social services, really needed? Who exactly was demanding this policy change from Ford?
Just days later, Ford reversed himself, as is so often prone to do. But why does this supposed ‘conservative’ premier keep pushing some very un-conservative policies?
In the first episode of ‘Not “Sorry”’ host Alexander Brown takes us through Doug Ford’s latest ‘bright’ idea on immigration, and his subsequent reversal.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, Juno News. My name is Alexander Brown. I am a director of the National Citizens Coalition.
00:10I'm a writer. I'm a columnist. I have a best-selling substack that goes by the name
00:15Acceptable Views. And I am thrilled to be presenting Not Sorry to You, a new show on
00:21Juno News. And thank you to Candice Malcolm. Thank you to the whole team here, just industry
00:27leaders and independent media. And I'm thrilled to be a part of it. And why Not Sorry? Because,
00:34gee, we're in a moment of speaking plain truths and speaking up for Canadian values, no longer
00:41apologizing profusely. When someone bumps into you on the street and you offer that Not Sorry,
00:51now it's government messing with you. It's government bumping India and we throw out this
00:56not, we throw out a sorry. We can't be sorry. This is a moment of recovery. This is a moment
01:02to get our country back and to do a better job on all these issues. And there's no bigger issue right
01:09now than immigration. It's the topic of the day. It's been the topic of weeks, even during a summer
01:18slowdown. And I want to thank Juno and Candice for letting me focus on immigration right now and to
01:25open the show. And I have a terrific promo code to offer you, junonews.com slash not sorry for 20%
01:33off. Doug Ford is in the news. Doug Ford is in the news for all the wrong reasons, as he often tends to
01:40be and that can be a tremendous disappointment. On Friday, he made an ill-advised haphazard asylum
01:48comment that all but waved the matador red for the country's asylum seekers and global asylum seekers
01:58to come to Canada to receive up to 100,000 asylum claimant work permits during an employment crisis
02:08and during a youth unemployment crisis, where no group of youth across the country is getting it
02:15worse right now than Ontario 15 to 24s. In Toronto, for example, right now, youth unemployment is 20%
02:22and the real number is actually believed to be much higher. And so I want you to listen to Ford's
02:27comments. Premier Ford, I'm wondering if you could expand on some of what you were talking about
02:32regarding the conflict between the federal government and the provinces over immigration.
02:36I'll give you an example. I have a tremendous amount of asylum seekers that are up in Etobicoke and
02:43in the hotels. They're healthy. They're willing to work. They're hardworking people, but they're
02:48waiting over two years and they're just sucking off the system nonstop. Not their fault. The fault
02:55falls under immigration that it takes over two years to get a work permit. I'm not waiting any longer.
03:01We're issuing work permits in Ontario for these folks to give back and contribute to society
03:08in Ontario. Now, these were understandably very concerning to many. A question must be asked
03:16amongst many others and has been asked by policymakers, industry experts, folks behind the scenes. I've talked
03:24to MPs, MPPs going, wait, who the heck was asking for this, especially during this youth unemployment
03:30crisis? And during a moment where, to the federal liberals' limited credit, they are making some
03:36adjustments to immigration, immigration adjustments that have been fought for by groups like the National
03:42Citizens Coalition, folks like myself, all kinds of great efforts. The shadow minister of immigration right
03:50now, Michelle Rempel has done a terrific job. So who the heck was asking for this? Thankfully, you know,
03:57Common Sense Canadians, those like yourself who are watching this right now, we've been up in arms because this
04:03was, if we had just taken one step forward on immigration, and we're starting to bring down this foreign
04:09student number, the temporary foreign worker numbers, that they're adjusting the PR, which is still too high annually,
04:15let's be honest. This would have been one step forward and then two steps back. And thanks to pressure
04:24from Common Sense Canadians, from, let's be honest, real conservatives on this issue, Ford has walked this
04:32back. He walked it back to start Monday. And I want you to listen to what he had to say about his asylum,
04:41needless asylum debacle.
04:44What I heard last week was, we're taking over the issue of permits for people who are claiming
04:51refugee status. What I'm hearing today is, no, we're not doing that. That's too complicated. And you
04:57misspoke last week. Can you explain why that?
04:59Well, yeah, so what I'm saying, we aren't taking it over. But the people that are there, that are sitting
05:07there collecting, oh, we're collecting welfare, they're collecting free schooling, free health
05:12care, and everything. I want them working.
05:13Premier, Premier. So what changed between last Wednesday and today? When last Wednesday,
05:20you were fairly unequivocal, you said it multiple times in Ontario, we start issuing work permits
05:24to asylum seekers. So today, you're saying that's no longer going to happen. Well, we want to work
05:29with the federal government. We don't want to take over the immigration system per se.
05:33Can you explain how this got into the final communique of all the premiers last week? You
05:38said you all wanted to, and she said there was overlap between federal and provincial
05:43responsibilities under Section 95 of the Constitution, and now you're walking the whole
05:47thing back, and it's just a way for more support. No, you know something, Rob? We're frustrated.
05:52The issue at hand here, beyond freaking people out, and we already have kids across the country,
06:03but particularly in Ontario, who are handing in hundreds of resumes and getting absolutely
06:08nowhere, is twofold. One, funnily enough, is Ford, this was a dramatic misinterpretation
06:18of even his own asylum file in his Friday statement, in his statement going into the weekend.
06:25Ford mentioned that no one understands this more than the premiers. We understand our immigration
06:30file on our asylum claims, and we're going to start setting our own numbers here. But he actually
06:36failed to understand, and I've heard from experts on this, that asylum claimants can get a work permit
06:44within just two weeks. We're not talking two years. So there are already those who are claiming asylum
06:52who have these work permits or choosing not to get them because they're getting a whole lot of money to
06:58sit on their hands. So that's problem one. Problem two was that, much like an infamous Justin Trudeau tweet
07:06after he was first elected that sort of launched, you know, a thousand ships towards Roxham Road,
07:13Ford was opening the potential floodgates for all asylum claimants inside of Canada
07:19to come to Ontario right away. And this wave would have just crashed down on youth unemployment and all
07:27these positions even harder. And even encourage those who were, you know, looking around at what
07:34country to go to, to go to Ontario and to compound these problems at the exact same time that the federal
07:43government is about to open up additional visas for parents and grandparents of new arrivals in the
07:51tens of thousands. So not only was, you know, is our public service buckling, is it harder than ever for,
07:59for folks to find jobs? Are we seeing issues with crime and chaos and letting in just a whole bunch of
08:06the predominantly young men who've, who we've never let in before some as legitimate students, but many
08:14is fake. And now many are filing fake claims for asylum when their visa is running out and they're being
08:21told they have to go back because the fake degree they got that isn't worth the, the, the paper it's
08:28printed on isn't proving fruitful in the job market. Um, they were going to start welcoming hundreds of
08:35thousands and more and, and wow, even the feds had started to, to do a little something here and
08:42Ford was once again showing why Ontario conservatives, uh, real Ontario conservatives, real Canadian
08:49conservatives, um, are increasingly frustrated by the actions of his government. Um, I was happy to be
08:57in the hub on Monday morning, first thing in the morning before this walk back started with Matt spoke
09:04of project Ontario. And we together we're writing about, you know, how the first job is disappearing
09:11and young Canadians deserve better with a particular focus on Ontario and the Ontario job numbers
09:17that are grim. And it builds on the advocacy that I have engaged in with the national citizens coalition,
09:25which is Canada's sort of founding conservative nonprofit advocacy group founded in 1967 by my grandfather.
09:34And he would have been appalled with what happened, you know, with what's happened over the last sort of
09:40what we refer to as a lost liberal decade, but he would have been particularly appalled by the fact that
09:46the company's now claiming to, you know, that wants you to buy Canadian and, and, and some of these folks
09:53waving new flags that they just bought on Amazon or Timu and anywhere, you know, you know, pay for our
10:01stuff for cheaper. They're not hiring Canadian. And what Ford just attempted to do was compound that
10:08problem. There is a case to be made that yes, having all these asylum seekers and hotels and the feds are
10:15finally set to pull funding for this. What the heck is he supposed to do with the problem that has largely
10:22been put on his front door by the federal government? But it wasn't this, no one was asking for this,
10:28except for maybe, maybe some shadowy lobby groups, uh, such as the century initiative,
10:35which is Canada's sort of mass immigration advocacy effort, which their corporate sponsors include
10:43three of the major banks and the Globe and Mail. Um, maybe this was dreamed up over his supposed
10:52late night campfire tale with, with Mark Carney, uh, during that first minister's week. Uh, this is a
10:59man that he ostensibly endorsed during the federal election while Ford and some of his inner circle were,
11:06were busy lobbing bombs at the federal conservatives. And I know you don't recall asking for what he
11:13just tried to pull and so many groups like the coalition now project Ontario, you know, they're,
11:19they're fighting for, for the little guy here, Michelle Rempel, the shadow minister of immigration,
11:25uh, in the house. She's been absolutely terrific. And the real concern here right now is that we don't
11:33want to be talking about immigration during a summer slowdown. There's supposed to be one it's July,
11:40but there's a concerted effort to further undercut these kids to further undercut our working class,
11:49our missing middle. Um, and it's almost like they're trying to get away with it because they
11:54think you're going to be at the cottage right now. Well, many of you can't afford a cottage anymore
11:59because this is now a country that works for very, very few. And it seems that that very,
12:05very few are trying to pull a fast one over July and August. And so it falls to us. It falls to,
12:13to well-informed Juno viewers and readers. It falls to the third party folks like me, the writers,
12:20the columnists. Brian Lilly wrote a really good piece too. There's been great reporting in Juno news
12:26to try to course correct for this, to, to, to, to boop them on the nose. And it's been great to see
12:32Ford walk this back, but a conservative wouldn't have put this forward in the first place. And
12:42at what point do we throw up our hands and go, just say you're liberal, just say you're an Ontario
12:49liberal. And the question that I've heard lately from experts and, and those in government MPs, MPPs,
12:57government relations is, and, and shockingly so is like in the, in the fight to sort of bring
13:05all this back to something more resembling the country once new, and, and that is more normal
13:11and productive. And, you know, maybe we actually do build these energy projects or a few of them or,
13:16and, and pick a few more winners than we do losers for a change is, is could Doug Ford
13:24be the last vestige of the Trudeau years? David Eby in British Columbia is certainly threatening to do
13:31the same. Wab Canoe wants to evidently stand in the way a few of these projects, despite certain claims
13:37to the contrary. But if Kearney is serious and, and doubts of course remain, I, I have them myself
13:45about rebuilding this country and getting it back on track. Ontario was and is by and large the dumping
13:53ground of all the bad ideas of the last decade. The Ford conservatives were all in on the Trudeau
14:00EV mandates. They've, they've gone all in on, on the diploma mills and the temporary foreign worker
14:05programs and have, have abdicated on key issues. They abdicated massively as many of us know during
14:12COVID. And part of why I do what I do and have expanded my work and, and I've been able to reach
14:19this audience is because COVID mandates, particularly Ontario where I was living at the time, lit a real
14:26fire under me where I'm looking at this conservative government going, you're the one guy who's supposed
14:31to have your head screwed on straight. Why aren't you a bit more like Danielle Smith right now?
14:35And that he isn't is, is the concern. And even the feds now are working to adjust these numbers.
14:43And Doug Ford is shooting from the hip and evidently shooting from the hip, not on behalf of the Canadian
14:53worker, not on behalf of unemployment that risks in Ontario going as high as 10%, where youth unemployment
15:01is, is 20% in, in Toronto, where towns have been transformed by these fake schools and, and, and just
15:09overrun by temporary foreign workers and, and foreign students at, at institutions like Conestoga where
15:15they're, they're, they're all but studying basket weaving and, and hairdressing instead of STEM,
15:22you know, medicine, the sciences, in demand, high trades. And they talk about growing the economy.
15:33They talk about standing up in the face of tariffs, the premiers do. Well, when Ontario's premier is
15:40standing up in the face of tariffs and growing the economy, the only thing that he is doing is growing
15:48low wage foreign labor replacement. The only thing they're growing is low skill and low wage. And so
15:58that GDP slightly goes up just because you're throwing bodies at it. But, but productivity is
16:06is next to flatlined and, and worse than lowly Mississippi, worse than Alabama. Ontario is continually
16:18the sick man of North America economically. And immigration plays a massive part of that.
16:26It needs to change. And as an informed viewer and reader, I hope you read this. I hope you share it.
16:34I hope you give them a really hard time because they deserve it. And why are we seeing certain policy
16:42wins or walkbacks from the Ford government, even changes to some of the proposed changes to federal
16:49immigration, which some have taken into into, have taken into effect, but others are expected for the
16:55fall. Unfortunately, it's not because they come to their senses. It's because you never lost yours.
17:04It's because ordinary Canadians notice how crazy this has gotten and continue to make a fuss.
17:13And it's, it's such a shame that we, we have to do so, but it's incredibly valuable. There was
17:20a leisure poll published last week that showed that 57% of Canadians still feel that revised,
17:30the revised liberal immigration targets are too high. But the real interesting thing within that poll
17:37and talk to anybody in the public square, follow anybody, but the subsidized media. And you know,
17:43this is true is that it is actually our proud immigrant communities, first, second, third generation
17:52Canadians who have a bigger problem with this. They, in that poll, if 57% of Canadians think immigration
18:01targets, it's still too many. 60% of those who identify as immigrant Canadians, recent immigrant
18:09Canadians, they have an even bigger problem with it. And why do they have a bigger problem with it?
18:15There's an obvious reason for that. They came the right way. They came on points and shared values.
18:22They came for higher level opportunities for, to build a home, to, to share in the Canadian culture.
18:31And now they are watching as 19% of the Canadian workforce has suddenly been made temporary. And they are
18:42seeing that that includes a group of, let's be honest again, and let's be not sorry, a group of
18:51characters who are trouble. There's been really important reporting here in Juneau News
19:00about some of these lenient sentences and, and some of these crime sprees committed by
19:06foreign students or temporary foreign workers, and how they're even getting just a boop on the nose
19:12because, you know, these liberal appointed judges are not, you know, when they're sentencing them,
19:18they're like, Oh, I don't want them to be kicked out of the country. No, if you're a guest,
19:22you should be kicked out of the country. And what an insult it is to our proud immigrant communities
19:28that they are potentially lumped in with this graduating class from the university of Sean
19:37Frazier, Mark Miller, and now Lena Diab, who sully what was, and should be again, one of the world's
19:46great immigration systems. My grandfather, who founded the National Citizens Coalition
19:51in 1967, in his very first ad he put out to concerned taxpayers. This was during Trudeau One.
19:59He finished with a sort of a call to action where he said, if you share my alarm, your support is
20:06welcome. From there, Canada's trailblazing conservative advocacy group was born. This is a
20:13moment for all of us. And I'm, and I'm really thrilled to be taking this message to Juneau News,
20:19and for all you to join me. This is a moment for all of us where like, if you share our alarm here
20:25at Juneau at, you know, at groups like the NCC, you know, amongst the common sense community where
20:32we're all bigger than we think, your support is most welcome. Sharing this work is most welcome.
20:38Your continued advocacy in your community, online, most welcome. And to do all that here at Juneau News,
20:47I would encourage you to take advantage of my promo code, very generous promo code. It's
20:52www.junonews.com slash not sorry for 20% off. You are more than welcome to check out my work with the
21:01National Citizens Coalition at www.nationalcitizens.ca. And you can find me on Substack at
21:09acceptableviews.substack.com. I have been Alexander Brown. Thank you for watching. Not sorry.
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