The racial origin of prospective immigrants does not play any part in the decision on their admission to Canada, the Federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, J.W. Pickersgill, told the House of Commons. “Nor does the department pay any attention to keeping a racial balance” in the country, the Minister said in response to a Conservative Party critic who deplored the decline of British immigrants into Canada.
Mr. Pickersgill said the department would like to see more immigrants from the British Isles and was concerned about their failing numbers. It gives preference to them because they fit quickly and more easily into Canadian life. But the policy of preference and selection is not based on race or creed, he insisted. “It is based upon a conception of adaptability to the kind of society we have tried to build in this country in the last 300 years.
Leon D. Cresthol. Liberal Party member of the House of Commons for Montreal, urged the Canadian Government to speed up immigration into the country and thus solve the nation’s economic problems. “Canada should maintain a population of 30,000,000 rather than half that number,” he said. “Increased productivity will progressively restrict the economy unless the population increases accordingly. More immigration would make more production necessary and thus provide more jobs.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
