‘GRANDFATHER IN’ PNP PROTESTERS
I drove to Richmond Street by the Coles Building to talk to the protesters, to tell them I cared about their situation, how my friends cared and that the PNP rule change is not fair. The word “grandfather” will never feel the same again. What would be the problem with “grandfathering” these folks into P.E.I.?
Nobody has ever given the number of PNP people who would be affected who are caught in our government’s sudden, imperious change of the rules.
We are all immigrants here except for the Mi’kmaq people. Most of us have ancestors who came to P.E.I. on a boat; now people arrive by jet. Everyone deserves good treatment. If our reputation of being the Gentle Island is to hold, we have to be kinder than what is being done to the current PNP applicants. There were many mistakes made with this program over the past and this recent rule change is another one.
We need doctors, housing and more, but not on the backs of people who came to P.E.I. in good faith, tore their lives apart to make it here and now are being told to leave.
As I stood speaking to the protesters sitting on the ground under blankets, weak with hunger and lack of water, a man came up to me with the idea that the newest PNP people should apply for training to work in a senior care facility. He asked if they all had Grade 12. They did, and likely so much more education. They have a sign saying, “Honk your horn.” I blew it all the way down the street as I drove away.
Be kind, be gentle and bend these new rules. “Grandfather in” resident PNP people who want to be Islanders, or get voted out. All it will take is asking the federal government for help. Do it. If Manitoba can do it, so can we.
Faye Pound, Charlottetown, P.E.I.