Faked oath-taking ceremony cast doubts on Kenney's sincerity

The federal immigration ministry's decision to fake a citizenship oath ceremony at the Sun TV studios using bureaucrats as stand-ins is either awful judgment or outright sacrilege, depending on your point of view.

It's almost impossible for those born in Canada to imagine the dreams, the hopes, the struggles and the hard work it takes to become a Canadian citizen.

One would think of all the people out there, immigration ministerial staff would understand the gravity of a swearing-in ceremony -- that final moment officially welcoming immigrants into the fold. Apparently not.

"Let's do it. We can fake the Oath," reads an email from a sunmedia.ca address.

(Ironic that the unidentified email-writer chose to capitalize the word oath, denoting respect, yet still be completely clueless on the inappropriateness of faking one.)

That the ministry would agree to this reveals its staggering hypocrisy.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is fresh from a grandiose campaign banning the apparently blasphemous act of wearing burkas or niqabs during the citizenship oath.

"Finally we are ensuring that the citizenship oath itself is properly respected by all of those who take it so that they, in taking a solemn commitment (and) being a witness publicly to the rest of their fellow citizens, demonstrate who they are and their commitment to Canada," Kenney said last December.

Demonstrate who they are? Unlike the bureaucrats posing as new Canadians in the ministry's staged ceremony?

Seems one's face isn't as strong an indication of respect for the oath as Kenney would have us to believe. Maybe we should make sure mittens are removed, too, so we know fingers aren't crossed... that might be the ticket.

This is the party that tried so hard to woo immigrants in the run-up to last spring's election with assurances their values were the Conservatives' values.

Were they sincere? Who knows? They had bigger issues on their hands, like winning an election. And it worked -- the party finally got its long-sought-after majority.

Ethical lines were also blurred during that campaign when ministerial staff used parliamentary resources to promote the party. Just as with the citizen ceremony debacle, staff was blamed and Kenney went on promoting "Canadian virtues."

If we're not careful, we may find ourselves with quite a different definition of just what that means.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 8, 2012 A11