wheatsheaf

And that is extremely odd. After all, Canada wants and in reality needs, an international globally involved citizenship for economic reasons. Even today dual nationals have made notable contribution to Canada, and dare it be known, some Federal politicians, bureaucrats and sportspeople hold dual citizenship.

Shard

It's on the wane in Europe (even France and Italy). Christianity, that is. I suspect some part of its demise is due to the many rationalists of the past six, seven decades that have doggedly pointed out that it's hokum. The irony in your argument is that it's generally because religionists do not 'live and let live' that some atheists are more vocal in their views.

Shard

Did the Lebanese stay for 5 years to get citizenship? Sorry, only vaguely aware of the controversy...

bats

Israel bombs the shit out off Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hitting civilian areas with nasty bombs disapproved of by the UN. Other countries decide that the situation is grave and evacuate their citizens to safety? There's a UN brokered truce after a very short while which means that people can go back to Lebanon.
Canadians disapprove and feel their Canadian values are rejected by scrounging refugees who had the cheek not to want to stay in Canada.

plasticcanuck

Personally I cannot think of any valid reason for ANY country to arrange evacuation of citizens who have basically abandoned that country, despite retaining their citizenships and pensions. It cost a great deal of money and the stories of ungratefulness by citizens of convenience were what caused the uproar by resident Canadians.

bats

What were the stories?

Teaandtoday5

Yes you've already said that it's not Christianity you're bothered about. I would continue to engage but the whistling is upsetting my dog.

Former Lancastrian

Perhaps this CBC article explains some of it
Evacuation: The lessons of Lebanon - Inside Politics

bats

That doesn't explain the stories of ingratitude mentioned by Plastic Canuck.

Former Lancastrian

Well I can't comment on what stories he heard. There were discussions about the cost of the evacuation and that after several months nearly all of them returned to the Lebanon. They were citizens of convenience. They only intended to return to Canada to retire and get better health benefits or any other benefits available to retirees. The evacuees were complaining about the method of being evacuated i.e. economy class on commercial airlines or a very slow boat with no modern frills.

I wonder what would happen if Canada suffered a catastrophic event how many Brits would need evacuating back to the UK and how the UK Govt would deal with it and how these expats would be looked upon by the UK residents?

plasticcanuck

This happened over 10 years ago so I can't recall specifics other than what FL stated in last sentence of his first paragraph above. It may seem picayune now but at the time with the costs being quoted, people in Canada became enraged at these ungrateful people.

bats

So Canadians only want to help people who will appear grateful and say how lovely Canada is, with no concern for what they may have needed rescuing from or that circumstances unexpectedly changed for the better?

Sounds like Canadian values to me.

bats

Wikipedia says that in the 2006 war 22,000 British citizens were evacuated from Lebanon. The Red Cross says that the majority of the million people evacuated from Lebanon returned mostly to find their homes uninhabitable. I haven't been able to find any other references to the people of the country carrying out the rescue complaining about ungrateful dual citizens.

JonboyE

This was in the Harper era where offering help to brown people, especially muzzies, was done, at best, through gritted teeth. And, if it had to be done, at least you could get some political capital by stirring up some anti brown sentiment in the "old stock" Canadians.

Shard

From FL's CBC article it sounds like the evacuated Lebanese were dual nationals who had previously gained Canadian citizenship, but had returned to live Lebanon. Is that what happened?