Birth of a growing industry in Canada

[Anonymous]

That is none of your business Herman.

Actually, it is, Fash...



YOU were the one that has, on numerous occasions, stated this fact here...  Publicly, on the open forum.



So, I question why it is all of a sudden "None of Herman's business"...

I don't discuss the personal things that Herman has mentioned.

[Anonymous]

That is none of your business Herman.

Actually, it is, Fash...



YOU were the one that has, on numerous occasions, stated this fact here...  Publicly, on the open forum.



So, I question why it is all of a sudden "None of Herman's business"...

I don't discuss the personal things that Herman has mentioned.

I wouldn't care if you did.

[Anonymous]

Come to Canada while pregnant and go  home with the ultimate souvenir---Canadian citizenship



By Brian Lilley of Sun NEws Media



TORONTO — When it comes to hot tourism spots in Canada, few would put suburbs like Richmond, British Columbia or Scarborough, Ontario up there with the CN Tower or the Rockies.



But to a certain kind of tourist, these suburbs, and specifically their hospitals, are all the rage.



A new paper from the Institute for Research on Public Policy shows birth tourism is growing in Canada's major cities.



Written by Andrew Griffith, the former director general of Immigration Canada, the paper reveals significantly more women than thought are coming to Canada to deliver their babies and leave with a Canadian passport for their child.



"The level of birth tourism nationally is at least five times greater than the 300 births captured by Statistics Canada in 2016," Griffith writes.



Instead of the Statistics Canada number, Griffith estimates that there were 3,628 babies born to foreign parents in 2017, and that doesn't include numbers from Quebec.



"The impact of this practice can no longer be described as insignificant given its effect on the integrity of citizenship and public perceptions that birth tourism is a fraudulent shortcut to obtaining citizenship," Griffith writes.



These figures don't include landed immigrants or refugees, this is simply people who are visiting Canada when they give birth.



While some would be people visiting on a work or student visa, Griffith says that even with a conservative estimate of 40% to 50% the number is too high.



His search for better data on birth tourism was sparked by reports earlier this year showing more than 20% of births at the Richmond Hospital just outside Vancouver were due to birth tourism.



Of 2,145 births at this hospital in 2017-18, 469 were non-resident births.



The second highest hospital tracked by Griffith for the paper is Scarborough and Rouge Hospital-birchmount site in Toronto's east end and St. Mary's Hospital in Montreal.



Both of those sites saw more than 9% of all births involve non-residents.



One thing all the hospitals on the list have in common is easy access to a major airport and direct flights in and out of Canada.



A petition sponsored by Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido, who represents the Richmond area, calls on the government to study the problem of birth tourism and take steps to end it.



So far the petition has garnered almost 11,000 signatures.



The previous Harper government considered taking action to stop birth tourism but with Statscan saying there were only a few hundred cases a year, the cost to enforce any new measures was deemed too high.



Now with higher and growing numbers, it is time to act.



The numbers tracked by Griffith show the number of births to nonresident mothers has just about tripled between 2010 and 2017.



None of this includes the numbers I revealed in this paper a week ago showing 44% of surrogacy births in British Columbia in 2016 and 2017 were for foreign based parents using a Canadian surrogate.



Each of those children, regardless of the status of the parents, gets full Canadian citizenship and all the benefits that entails. Even if the mother only flew into Canada and checked into the hospital for the express purpose of giving birth.



Isn't that making a mockery of our system?



Doesn't that debase Canadian citizenship?



There are lawyers, consultants and "global mobility solutions" experts offering services on having a baby in Canada in order to get a Canadian passport for the baby.



The Conservative Party passed a resolution at their convention this past summer to end the practice of birth tourism.



That move was instantly attacked by Trudeau's top aide Gerald Butts as, "a deeply wrong and disturbing idea."



You'll recall that Trudeau famously campaigned to give back Canadian citizenship to convicted terrorists who had dual citizenship and who had taken up arms against Canada.



His mantra was that a Canadian, is a Canadian, is a Canadian.



It's a handy catch phrase and useful when the real purpose is to try and sound compassionate and scare immigrants.



The truth is that under Trudeau Canada has still stripped many people of citizenship. From former Nazis to people that lied on their applications to come here.



The simple fact of the matter is that Canadians get to decide who gets citizenship, and we do that all the time.



Changing the law to end birth tourism, a growing and disturbing trend, would hardly be controversial for most Canadians.



Let's hope someone in the political world has the courage to take up this issue.