CIReport.ca INTERVIEWS

Scott Bernstein : “Although I am not challenging that at this time, I think there is also a strong case to be made that non-citizens should be able to vote in provincial and federal elections. ”

Scott Bernstein

CIReport.ca: Mr Bernstein, you moved from the Unites Sates to Vancouver in 2006 as a student. Presently, you are a permanent resident. In order to become a Canadian citizen, you have to wait two more years. As a permanent resident, you may not participate in the electoral system or obtain a Canadian passport. You have recently began a campaign to grant permanent residents the right to vote. What are your arguments?

In my legal quest, I am seeking two small and reasonable things: the right for non-citizens to vote in municipal elections in Vancouver and the right to run for office in the municipal government.

Scott Bernstein: Voting is one of the most important – if not THE most important – characteristics of a democracy. We read about people all across the world fighting for the right to vote. They do this so that they can have a voice in decisions made on their behalf on important things that affect them and a voice in who will represent them in government. In my legal quest, I am seeking two small and reasonable things: the right for non-citizens to vote in municipal elections in Vancouver and the right to run for office in the municipal government.

CIReport.ca INTERVIEWS

Herbert G. Grubel: “Too late is when immigrants have an overwhelming influence on election outcomes and remain interested in having more people from their home countries join them.” 

Herbert G. Grubel is Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at Simon Fraser University and a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

CIReport.ca: Professor Grubel, you are a Senior Fellow with the Fraser Institute and  Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University. Much of your work has been on the subject of immigration. How and when did you first become interested in the economics of population movement?

Herbert G. Grubel: In the mid-1960s I co-authored an article, which was published in the American Economic Review on the economics of the brain drain. This article was followed by several others in leading journals, including Science, and a National Science Foundation grant to study the register of scientific and technical personnel for data on the national origin of US scientists.
I have always advocated free migration because of its beneficial effects on global income and freedom. However, this analysis assumes the absence of the welfare state. My recent work considers the implications for the traditional conclusions that are due to the existence of the welfare state and the low incomes of recent immigrants into Canada.

CIReport.ca INTERVIEWS

André Drouin : “Only fools tolerate the intolerable.”

"Arnold Toynbee wrote: " Nations die by suicide, not by murder". I do believe it."/Photograph courtesy of André Drouin

CIReport.ca: You have become famous in Canada and abroad since the 2007 events in Hérouxville. Is it difficult to be André Drouin today?

André Drouin:I would say the worst is behind me and my wife Luce now. We were “under protection” (Canadian Intelligence Services and similar groups) after February 2007  when the first death threats were received. The other rather tough part that lasted for three years came from certain media who tried everything possible to shut (or shoot ?) me down. But I am still alive… and well. I have noticed quite a change of tone for the last two years. Many events happened in Canada and became known to the public. Many honour killings, forced marriages, polygamy cases, female circumcision, gender equality not respected, employers struggling with so called reasonable accommodations are within those cases. Prior to the ¨Affaire Herouxville¨, the same cases were there, but never made public. Now, each time such an event surfaces, the boomerang comes back. But now it’s like I am controlling the boomerang. Only now people understand why Herouxville came to life and what Herouxville meant. I keep on going. Same speech. I am not against something. I am only fighting for something. I only want my country to be a peaceful place to live.