Immigration, racial relations and visible minority issues were the focus of this Monday’s Political Parties Debate at Toronto’s Metro Hall. Hosted by the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF), the in-depth forum gave politicians an opportunity to demonstrate to attendees their governments’ plans regarding employment, housing, education, healthcare, and human rights to better accommodate immigrants and multi-racial communities in Ontario. Rosario Marchese represented the NDP, while michael Bryant held court for the Liberals. Although invited, Progressive Conservative representative/Minister of Health Tony Clement did not attend the debate.
“Tories never want to come to debates,” said Rosario Marchese in his two-minute opening statement. It is difficult for political parties to talk about issues concerning immigrants, he said, but the NDP has a fixed agenda which will help not only accommodate these specific communities but all communities in Ontario. It includes increasing the minimum wage from $6.85 to $8 per hour, establishing $10 per day child-care services (similar to Quebec where it is $5 per day), freezing rent increase, and making sure that hydro remains in public hands.
Michael Bryant, in his turn of opening remarks, stated: “We must be the change we wish to see.” Dalton McGuinty, he said, has dedicated a whole platform focusing on the diversity of Ontario, which encourages to use our diversity to our own advantage by opening up regulatory bodies and placing skilled newcomers in their specialized professions (rather than working in low cost jobs), providing ESL classes to adults (ESL funding has gone down 31 per cent with the PC government, according to Bryant), and increasing child care access.
Education was one of the many issues on the table. “What will your party do to remove barriers in education to ethnically diverse young adults? Asked Clive Braham of CHRY Radio. “Most importantly, we must give access to child care for everybody. The Liberals are also planning to make a big investment in post secondary education, increase the number of spaces in universities and freeze tuition,” said Bryant.
“NDP will make sure that children receive equal opportunities at school from early age,” said Marchese. In terms of the financial aspect, Marchese stated: “The PC government took $2 billion out of the education system. $2.1 Billion should be taken back. NDP is planning to reduce tuition fees by 10 per cent, and we need this money to reduce tuition fees.”
But the key focus of the event was racial relations. OCASI, one of the hosting organizations of the debate, is the umbrella association for more than 150 immigrant and refugee-serving organizations in Ontario. Its president, Uzma Shakir, said that “more than 25 per cent of the population of Ontario is foreign-born, and yet immigrants, refugees and racialized communities have been all but invisible in the debates on the Ontario provincial elections, except when they are being demonized.”
Chair of CRRF, Pat Case, charged that in the past, leaders’ debates were based on a “white agenda that ignored the issues of racialized communities, even though more than 19 per cent of Ontario’s population is visible minority.”
To this, both Marchese and Bryant responded that both of their governments promise to bring minorities into the political debate circle by actively talking and educating Ontario residents about Ontario’s multiracial communities, and establishing special institutions to fight racism in Ontario.
