Close Reading

22years ago a family of four newcomers - mom, dad and two kids, from Pakistan, moved in next door to us in a small south west Ontario city. Beautiful neighbourhood with lovely homes. Within 18 months there were 21 family members - parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc - packed in there and the government cheques were pouring in; surprise, surprise; suddenly they were able to start buying businesses and investment properties. Don’t get me wrong, they were nice and only took advantage of everything the government was offering but they certainly flaunted rules and what I’d call Canadian conventions. Their house and property was turning into a complete shithole and we did the “white flight” shortly afterwards. Make no mistake, whether it’s India or Pakistan, we are slowly, or maybe not so slowly, be colonized by those countries…and those are not nice countries.