links18 said:
It's very politically convenient for the Tories and the new Bill ("look how things are already speeding up and we haven't even passed the bill yet!")
I don't think that it is a coincidence. The conservatives are very good at managing the media and staying on message.
Here's their narrative:
1. So many immigrants are frauds!
2. We're cracking down. (RQ, revocation, etc.)
3. We're cutting CIC staffing levels while adding to the workload.
4. Record high backlogs. Record processing timelines.
5. Month before cit bill proposed, everything suddenly becomes 5x faster
6. We're already speeding things up (after slowing them down). Imagine how fast things will be after we pass this new Bill.
Create a crisis to solve a crisis. Demonstrate some competence/speed with the new applications. Narrative= tough on frauds, competent, problem solvers.
It behooves us to be wary of this message. In my opinion, the narrative should be "We'll delay or withhold your rights if it will help us win elections." "We'll subjugate government function to political gain."
There have been some ATIP releases
http://residencequestionnaire.wordpress.com/atip-releases/ as of late showing a level of mismanagement around the implementation of the revamped RQ which strains credulity. It's hard to view it as anything other than deliberate. A deliberate slow down to get stories in the press about the "fraud crackdown" and create a huge backlog and unprecedented processing times. The designers of the revamped RQ said that they we're startled to see it used in 20-40% of cases as it was designed for the "worst of the worst". They had no capacity to deal with 500 pages of documents when 10 used to do the job. Deliberate.
And what's happening now? Things are fast. The CIC is suddenly 5x more efficient? Right before the cit bill is introduced? It's too perfect. And it belies the oft-repeated notion of how the Minister is "raising the value of citizenship".
It cheapens citizenship to use it as a political pawn. My right to vote in my daughter's school board election should not be subjugated to some politician's election strategy. That is base. It's below the dignity with which citizenship should be regarded.
