Arizona Passes Anti-Ilegal Immigration Bill; The Great Canadian Illegal Immigration Problem

That extreme liberals are insane is well documented. We also know far-right conservatives suffer from several mysterious mental disorders as well. And no doubt, they will both chime in with their take on the anti-illegal immigration bill in Arizona. A bill that seems to make illegal immigration, erm, illegal.

Now. I'm Canadian. I can't possibly begin to understand what the fine folks living in states that border Mexico are witnessing. My confused province of Quebec shares a border with Vermont for cripes sakes. Bo-ring! No shoot to kill orders round here.

Aside from all the strawman fallacies being put up, the fact remains, people are gaining access into a host country illegally. If citizens of the leftist-tilt believe in the rule of law as they claim (and they do), then isn't dealing (and not with this bill in particular) with this problem a must in order to preserve the foundation of what is liberal democracy?

People have rightfully pointed how it can pose problems on civil liberties. But. Does anyone see a delicious irony here? Liberals have no problem trampling on civil liberies so long as it serves their purposes. Like those on the right, they cherry pick what they bitch about. And don't look to the right for suggestions since they're all for law & order enforcement authoritarianism.

Assigning blame won't do much good either. It looks like everyone has a hand in this. Including Corporations and private individuals addicted to cheap labour and government officials who turned a blind eye to it.

Clearly, something has to be done, no? After all, people are breaking the law! As for those already in the country, well, that'll be an interesting thing to see how our friends handle that. I wonder how many of them find their way into Canada.

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Which brings me to the great anti-illegal immigration crisis of 1862. Only this time it involved Canadians. Their motives were different than the Mexicans as they sought to escape the numbing boredom of pre- BNA-Act Canada.

1 million Canadians of both French, English and gosh, Scottish extraction illegally poured into the northern U.S. states to pick strawberries, make beer, perform in comedy theater during the Civil War, and play a peculiar and violent sport that can only be described as a hybrid of hockey, lacrosse and curling.

Soon after the war, immigration became a politically charged issue and Canickians (as Canadians were called) were thought to be corrupting blacks by encouraging them to sing the blues and filling Americans with frivolous notions of "peace, order and good government."

Eventually, half the Canickians returned to Canada and decided to make a country of a land expected to carry the torch of the British Empire. They signed the BNA Act and the rest is history. No really. It became a historical fact when the Dominion of Canada was born in 1867.

As for the remaining Canickians who stayed behind not much is known of these "sojourners." Some may have split for Mexico, others like the Beauchamps became the Bowchamps or the Nicefields. Some believe they continued to influence American culture behind the scenes. One theory traces Canadian comedians working in Hollywood are in fact part of the same tribe who performed for soldiers during the Civil War.

Either way, illegal immigration was dealt with and its lasting impact remains with us in strange ways.