SIMPLE SOLUTION
Re: Left, right, wrong: No one has solved border crossing. Andrew Coyne, Aug. 26
“Abide the law, close the door.” My six word response to your assertion.
Bernard John, Kingston, Ont.
It may be recalled that after the British conquest of Canada in 1759, the colonial Gov. Sir Guy Carleton thought Canada would always remain a French- speaking country. “Europeans who migrate,” he asserted, “will never prefer the cold inhospitable winter of Canada to the more cheerful climate and more fruitful soil of His Majesty’s southern provinces. So, barring tragedy shocking to think of, this country must, to the end of time, be peopled by the French- Canadian race.”
This was not to be. Within a decade and a half, came a crowd of American royalists driven into exile by revolutionary upheavals in their own country. They were North America’s first war refugees who remained loyal to Britain during the War of Independence and fled to Canada after the war to escape persecution at the hands of so-called Patriots.
The influx of American refugees, known as the United Empire Loyalists, signalled the transformation of Canada. It could no longer be contended that Canada would remain French to the end of time.
A substantial and growing population of anglo-American stock had been planted in Quebec and areas next to it what were to become Ontario and New Brunswick, triggering a process in which the francophones became a minority in the country founded by them.
With American refugees transforming Canada, most Canadians, especially the English- speaking majority, have an obligation to welcome refugees again facing persecution in “the land of free and home of brave.” It can be argued that if the Americans did not revolt, the Loyalists would have stayed home and subsequent British immigration would have gone to “His Majesty’s southern provinces” and Canada would have remained French. A nation built by refugees from the U. S. cannot turn back refugees facing persecution in Trump’s America.