torontosm said:
Paying taxes does not entitle you to citizenship.
Exactly!
"Paying taxes" has become a worn-out cliche that is used too often to elicit emotions from listeners when someone's trying to argue that they're entitled to a benefit. Here's a fact: It does not matter what your status is Canada is, permanent or temporary. If you earn any income in this country, you MUST pay tax on it. It's the law.
Another one of my favorite cliches is that foreign students "contribute" to society. C'mon people. A student has not even begun his professional career yet. He's building his own knowledge base. Next they're going to say newborn babies or even pets "contribute" to society. Yeah, whatever floats your boat.
Unfortunately, even people in power have bought into the worn out cliches. A good part of Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe's opposition argument in the House of Commons is about foreign students not being able to count pre-PR time and not being able to "contribute" to society. Really? Is she THAT concerned with people who are not even residents of Canada yet? If she's worried about people not being able to contribute to society, then she and her ilk should go after the big corporations who cut jobs and/or move their operations off-shore because that is the major reason real Canadians (e.g. citizens) are sitting at home unemployed and are thus unable to "contribute" to their society.
I don't want this to be taken the wrong way. Bless her heart, Blanchette-Lamothe is the most outspoken member of the opposition on Bill C-24 and for that I tip my hat to her. But I want to see more vigorous opposition to the parts of the bill that are really scary, such as the parts that give the Minister the powers to decide what is considered a complete application, the power to decide how much information CIC can fish for in your private life when it processes your application, and (worst of all) the power to move to revoke someone's citizenship at will.
Before you even say it, I don't have a problem with foreign students. I have a problem with treating foreign students as if they were permanent residents. Sorry but a foreign student is not a permanent resident. Nor does that status automatically qualify you for permanent residence. When people apply for a student visa they're not promised any such status. And in theory (like with any temporary status) applicants for a student visa must demonstrate their intent to return home at the expiration of their status in order to get this visa at all (although in practice I am aware that this requirement is never enforced in the case of Canada).