Jamil Jilvani Becomes The First Conservative MP In Recent Years To Oppose Mass Immigration

Jamil Jilvani, the Conservative MP for the Ontario riding of Durham, rose in the House of Commons on September 17th to oppose Bill C-71 – a Liberal bill which would allow Canadian citizens who were born outside of Canada to pass citizenship on to their children who are also born outside of Canada. Bill C-71 has been criticized for its potential to create a “never-ending chain of citizenship” for the descendants of immigrants who left this country after obtaining Canadian citizenship.

While the debate surrounding Canadian citizenship law is a significant story in and of itself, the way in which Jilvani framed his criticism of Bill C-71 was also noteworthy. Before zeroing in on flaws in the bill, he set the issue in the wider context of Canada’s sky-high immigration levels, and the strain that unsustainable population growth is placing on our standard of living:

“Madam Speaker, I rise in the House today to oppose Bill C-71. I do so wanting to recognize the context that our country finds itself in right now.

Immigration levels are too high. We are now approaching an average of 1.5 million people coming into the country per year. The reason we know that is too high is because population growth is now outpacing the job market. It is outpacing the housing market. It is also outpacing investment in social services like hospitals, schools and child care facilities. The quality of life for the average Canadian is in decline because of the stress being placed on our local economies and on public services. This is a sentiment held not just by people who may have been in Canada for many generations, but also by people who are immigrants themselves, children of immigrants and grandchildren of immigrants.”

While Pierre Poilievre has pledged to create a formula that would tie population growth to housing, Jilvani’s claim that “immigration levels are too high” is the most direct statement on the subject by any Conservative MP in years – including the current party leader. Jilvani isn’t pulling any punches.

There was one other section of Jilvani’s speech in the House where he briefly deviated from his central theme of Bill-C71 to offer a biting critique of the taboos surrounding the subject of immigration in Canada. While the first statement which I quoted was a broadside against the social problems created by Trudeau’s immigration policy, this second quote is an attack on what Jilvani sees as a weaponization of fears of racism to prevent Canadians from speaking their mind about immigration levels:

“How did we get to a point where we can walk into the House of Commons and have legislation put in front of us that does not address the specific concerns that many Canadians of all backgrounds have about our current immigration levels?

That is fundamentally the result of what has been a concerted effort to stifle debate and criticism of immigration policy in the country. For a long time now, daring to ask a question about how immigration policy affects Canada, daring to criticize the Liberal status quo on immigration has gotten us smeared, labelled, name-called, fingers pointed in our face, people questioning whether we have compassion or concern for people of all sorts of different backgrounds and cultures. The reality is that they can finger-point all they want. They can do all the name-calling they want. They can do all the smearing they like. The reality is that we have a very specific purpose when we enter the House of Commons, which is to ask the fundamental question of what is best for Canada.”

While entirely unreported by Canada’s mainstream media, these statements by the Conservative MP for Durham are highly significant, especially if they herald a coming willingness in the Conservative Party to speak directly about immigration and population growth.