CANADA Now Hiring: Taxi Drivers Wanted; Doctors Need Not Apply

I will call her"Myra" (not her real name), and she was an attractive, personable newly graduated physician from Holland who spoke flawless English. She came to Canada seeking to enjoy and contribute to our way of life. She graduated from a reputable Dutch medical school, but was quite willing to submit to whatever testing or examination by Canadian medical bodies and overseers of her credentials in order to verify that she was a top-flight physician.

Canada's Immigration department responded with unaccountable hostility from the moment she sought to practice in Canada. The upshot of the entire situation was that Myra was to sit and wait for more than a year for her case to be considered. She was not permitted to even volunteer, whether it was to simply read to elderly people or read stories to young children. Her medical expertise was more than ignored, it seemed to work against her. MP Herb Gray was either powerless or disinterested to help with the case. Ultimately, after more than a year of maddening bureaucratic red-tape this highly qualified physician -- whom I would trust to perform surgery on me, in a heartbeat; in whose care I would insist to be -- returned to the Netherlands.

A friend of mine -- Canadian born and bred -- is a police officer. A few years ago, a taxi driver who had bizarrely, intentionally jumped the curb of the street on which he was driving, ran down and killed an elderly woman and the child she pushed in a baby carriage. After this, as police responded to the situation, my friend attempted to block the way of this deranged taxi driver with his police vehicle. The taxi driver rammed him, almost killing him.

It came out in court that this deranged taxi driver came to Canada from Iraq -- came to this country after serving in the Iraqi military and murdering a superior officer (he had apparently disobeyed an order and essentially got into a "pissing match" with his superior officer, which culminated in his murdering his superior officer). It was revealed in court that this man's murderous past came out in his hearing with Canadian immigration authorities, all of whom appeared to be quite unbothered about allowing a confessed murderer into Canada. The fact that this man was Iraqi is irrelevant to me. The fact that he was a murderer is what I'm focusing on.

I am not anti-immigrant. My maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland, and many of my friends are either immigrants or the children of immigrants -- all wonderful, hardworking people seeking better lives than they would have had in their home countries; all of whom came to Canada seeking to contribute. I am completely in favor of Canada being a haven for asylum seekers whose lives are in danger in their home countries. I only draw the line with people whose lives are in danger due to criminal activity on their part in their home countries.

The source of my outrage over Myra's situation and the situation involving that murderous Iraqi taxi driver centers on the cloak of incompetence and detachment from common sense and reality that envelopes Canadian policymakers.

Once more I will advance the only solution I so far have for bridging this gap between the reality of Ottawa and the rest of Canada -- every Canadian citizen must move to Ottawa; breathe their air, drink their tap water. Maybe then the lunacy of our laws and policies will finally make sense to folks like me.