March 23, 2013

• Report # 984

  Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a great weekend so far. Over the last few days I’ve basically been sticking with the same routine. I’ve woken up around 10:00 am, ran to Tim Hortons, came home and cleaned up a bit, and applying for jobs. I’ve applied for about 18 jobs over the past week, so I’m hoping to hear something this coming week. I did get a call yesterday morning from a place super close, but they called the house phone and I didn’t get the call.

  I called back and a lady transferred me to another lady, but she didn’t pick up so I had to leave a message. She didn’t call me back on Friday, but hopefully she will on Monday. The whole job application thing is a bit of a process, but it usually takes a few weeks to get something. The company that did call me was a place that I applied for on Monday, so it took them four days to call me, so I’m hoping some of the other jobs, most of them which I applied for after Monday, will get back to me sometime this coming week.

  I check with my visa process online yesterday evening, but there was still no response, so I will continue looking for something as I would like to work at least for a short time period while I’m here. There were actually some very interesting jobs for which I applied and I think I’d enjoy doing a number of them, so I will hope to get a response sometime soon. I certainly haven’t been running like I was doing in Mexico, and I don’t really have a good excuse for that, but I’m going to have to get back to running a lot longer else I won’t be able to beat my Sun Run time from last year like I really want to do.

  It’s too bad the Sun Run hadn’t been the 2nd week of March after I returned, I would have been easily ready to destroy my time. I am still very confident that I’ll be able to do that, but I’m going to have to start running a lot more seriously again. I’ve watched a couple of movies over the past few nights. I saw Crank: High Voltage, which was a Jason Statham movie, a sequel to one that I saw in the theatres a number of years ago. I remember seeing the first one, and while it was far from an award winning film, it was entertaining and I enjoyed it.

  However, this second movie absolutely sucked and so far it’s my run away nominee for the worse movie of the year for the next Kyle Awards. It was just plain awful on so many levels, and I really think it will be hard for me to find a worse movie… unless I go out of my way to find horrible movies to watch.

  Last night I watched a horror movie called I Spit on your Grave, about a woman who was raped by a number of guys and she gets her revenge and kills all of them…. what can I say, sometimes watching these types of movies is interesting.

  Aside from that the last few days haven’t been too exciting. Aside from taking pictures of the pets, I haven’t done any picture taking since I’ve arrived back home, but that’s fine with me as I was on picture overload throughout the last few months.

  Every once and a while I read about a story that is just so shocking that I never would have believed it unless I actually read it. There is a reality TV show on the National Geographic channel here called Border Security: Canada’s Front Line. The goal of this show was to give Canadians a glimpse of what the border services people do on a day to day basis, however, there was an episode that aired recently that has cause a whole bunch of controversy in this country and rightfully so.

  On TV was a raid of a construction site in Vancouver being filmed, and several workers arrested for being here illegally. From what I read the workers were from places like Mexico and Honduras though they had been in Canada illegally for a number of years. A few of the people arrested had Canadian born children, and girlfriends or wives here, and now they are going to be deported back to their countries.

  Now I don’t support people coming in and working illegally, but to have these poor people shown on TV in a reality show when they are being raided by immigration officers, I just think this is a new low for Canada. The workers had to sign papers saying it was ok for them to appear on television, but from what I’ve been reading, they only signed because they were too scared what might happen if they didn’t.

  Now the worst part of all of this is that this reality show was approved by the government of Canada; a government that tries to show itself as being pro-immigrant. Now this government can send the immigration minister wearing religious garbs to all of the different temples and mosques it wants, but it’s clear he is only doing that to try and exploit voters in ethnic communities in a bid to get more votes. It’s appalling that this show was approved to be on TV by the government of Canada itself…. I’m just thoroughly disgusted.

  I was reading some of the letters written to the Vancouver Sun and posted online in the Yahoo news stories throughout the last couple of weeks, and some people were posting how they thought something like this would happen in the United States and that Canada isn’t Texas… but it’s time for Canadians to wake up and realize this is taking part in our own country and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

  Sure shows like Cops have existed for years, but this is just the lowest of the low in terms of reality television. It’s not like those immigrants being arrested on TV were criminals who had harmed anyone. They were working very hard and it’s very probable that they were doing jobs that most people would not have wanted to do themselves. Now as I said earlier, I certainly don’t support illegal immigration, but there has to be a level of compassion that is shown towards these people, as we don’t understand their stories or how life was like for them back at home.

  Some of them were in the process of being sponsored by a partner, and were actually trying to be in this country legally. They have kids and girlfriends, and wives. I just don’t think by making an example out of them on national television in a grab for ratings is the way to go on this issue, and it’s shameful that we have a government that seems to think that this sort of activity can count as a form of entertainment. I certainly hope the majority of Canadians are as disgusted by this as I am and they won’t be turning into this reality garbage.

  I’ve supported the current government in the past on a number of occasions, but I’ve clearly given up on them. Canada’s standing in the world has gone down over the past few years I believe, and our tourism has taken a beating. (which I will discuss next entry) I can say with 100 % certainty that I will not be voting for the Conservative Party of Canada in the next election, and I am sure I’m not the only person who has been turned off by their outrageously appalling actions in recent years.

  Protecting the border and caring for the immigration system is a very serious job, and not something that needs to be shown on television as a reality TV show. Worse yet the government has been super silent about the costs of this reality show, and they showed a complete lack of leadership in terms of answering questions…. which is nothing new for them. I’m all for being supportive of the work that the people in the border security department do, but this whole reality show just shows it all in the wrong light.

  It’s not the fault of the border services employees as they are just doing their jobs, but the government of Canada for approving this TV show and having absolutely no problems with exploiting the tough lives of illegal immigrants by showcasing them on television for people to watch as a form of entertainment. It’s a new low for this country and I’ve determined that it will take a change in government to get this country back to where we should be.

  Obviously I’m very proud to be Canadian and of the country itself, but this government has greatly disappointed me and by the time the next election rolls around they’ll have been in power for about 10 years, so it will definitely be time to turn the page and give Canada  a fresh start. As for the reality TV show, I just don’t know at what point these ideas become too much. Just anyone involved with this show, the making of it, the acceptance of the idea… they should all be greatly ashamed.

  Anyways I’ve said about all I can say on this issue, for the next question:

  What are your thoughts on the government of Canada using a reality TV showing border services agents arresting illegal immigrants on national television ?

  I hope that everyone has an awesome weekend. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Tuesday, bye for now.

  • 4:44 pm
  • 4 Comments