Immigration Minister Marc Miller welcomed 368 new citizens from 60 countries as they took their oaths of allegiance to Canada under the Cirque du Soleil big top on Friday.
It was a day after his constituency office was found vandalized, with windows smashed and pink paint sprayed over, but that didn't stop Immigration Minister Marc Miller from cracking jokes with the audience at a special citizenship ceremony in Toronto to mark Cirque du Soleil's 40th anniversary.
"Anyone want to change their mind? You still have time," Miller said jokingly at last Friday's event.
"But I'm pretty sure no one is going to change your mind if I look at the smiles on your faces. This is a beautiful time for you." Miller personally welcomed 368 new citizens from 60 countries as they took their oaths of allegiance to Canada under the big tent of one of the world's most famous circuits.
Meeting proud immigrants who work hard to become Canadian and seeing the light in their eyes at events like this is a reminder for Miller of the value of Canadian citizenship country faces today and the challenge the On the eve of his anniversary at the helm of the Immigration Department on Friday, the minister sat down with the Star to share the good, the bad and the ugly of this job in the past year, as well as what's on his to-do list with the next federal election expected 15 months from now, in October 2025.
"Canadians are less tolerant of errors right now or of a system that lacks the rigour and discipline that it needs," the Liberal minister said.
"We're not immune to social media and what people have seen in Europe, with large flow of irregular migration and the political systems that have leveraged that or weaponized that, and swept in typically right-wing governments." Miller said that on top of his mind is the rapid growth of refugee claimants in Canada since 2022, when international travel returned to normal after the pandemic.
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اشترك في Magzter GOLD للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 25, 2024 من Toronto Star.
اشترك في Magzter GOLD للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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