The Ben Mulroney Show - It's time to really look at the problems with our Immigration system

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Guests and Topics: -It's time to really look at the problems with our Immigration system -Edmonton-area youth, 15, arrested for terrorism-related offence with Guest: Dr. Oren Amitay, Psychologist If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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through NCF conditions apply see nissan.ca for details. This is the Ben Mulroney showing God do I love that song I'm gonna listen to that in the car on my way home. Happy Friday to everybody. We're gonna talk immigration and I'm not telling you something you don't already know if there is that there's a lot of shame that should be hung around the necks of the of the Trudeau governments. The greatest shame is their breaking of our national consensus that immigration and our immigration system was a net positive for this country. It helps us build this country. It helps us make our country stronger. It has helped for generations. And it was a consensus built over generations that crossed party lines. It defied politics. It was just something that most of us could agree on. Then they broke it by trying to show us how welcoming they were and how magnanimous and benevolent they were. And now the data is in that it is broken.

Half of Canadians believe immigration harms the country. They think it's a negative. And 57% of Canadians agree that too many immigrants, quote, are not adopting Canadian values. So give us a call here on the Ben Mulroney show. How do we get back to a place where we can reverse those numbers? Does Mark Carney need to severely overhaul

the immigration system? Is this an opportunity for our country to take the immigration system down to its studs, start again and build something 21st century specific, purpose-built for a new Canada in a new century and a new economy. Like maybe that's what we have to do. And how do we get new Canadians to buy in to this idea

that when you come here, there is a national identity. There are things that we need you to do to join us in building this country, to join us in being one Canadian people. Mark Carney talks about building a one Canadian economy. How about building one Canadian people? How about that? What do we do?

How do we make that happen? So give me a call here on the show. I'm really, it's really saddening to me that half of Canadians believe that immigration harms the country. And look, there's also the flip side to it as well is we have to do more to spur the birth rate in this country.

When the people who live here aren't having babies. And the only way to grow the economy is to grow the population is to bring people in. And should we be looking at different parts of the world to bring people in? Are we bringing in too many people from one part of the world versus another? So these are all questions that need to be answered. And Michael Bonner makes a few interesting points, including saying that a new ministry

should be held responsible for ensuring that we're letting in people who will further our economic interests and to ensure that infrastructure keeps up and also making sure that the people who come in want to be here. And yes, we want them to preserve their culture and honor their homeland. But they, if we wanted them to just maintain their national identity from where they were, we would ask them to stay where they were. But they're coming to a new place, a new land, a new country with its own values and history and institutions and identity. And we need those people to buy into that. And I don't think I'm saying anything that should that should offend anybody. It's not regressive and it's not fearful of other people and their identities.

I want everybody who comes here to remember where they came from. But in remembering where they came from, implicit in that is you came from somewhere and you arrived somewhere else. The somewhere else is Canada. And if you are going to honor your past, you need to help us build our future together as Canadians. This is not a hot take. This is essential. This is, you know, Justin Trudeau said

we're a post-national state with no core identity, shame on him. What a destructive thing to say. What an unuseful thing to say. What a corrosive thing to say. Diminishing who we are, the underpinnings that gird us, that we build this country on. Like those matter.

And to be, to poo poo them and dismiss them. That's one of the reasons that we have the problems that we have. Hey Steve, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. What's happening, man? Oh, you know, it's, well, we're having a great discussion on immigration. Nice. Nice. Exactly what I want to touch on. Sure. It starts with good politics at the end of the day, man.

Like you need to bring the right people over, like professionals, blue collar workers that make a difference. Now people that came here because their country was war torn, like professionals, blue collar workers, that they make a difference. Now people that came here because their country was war torn, they don't come here with any kind of patriotism. They don't. A lot of them didn't even want to come period.

That's the problem here. And what you've done. Well, hold on, Steve. Steve, I want to jump in because I want this to be a conversation. Absolutely, go right ahead. Yeah, so I think, look, I think you're confusing the immigration system

and our refugee system. And if you come here from a war-torn country as a refugee, there is an argument, and I think a very real argument, that there is an appreciation in those refugees of the country that brought them in. But we have to actively court that and stoke that appreciation. We have to, you know, you can't just come here from a war-torn country and be left to live your life without an indication that, hey, you're here, we value you, but you need to value us.

What do you think of that? I agree 100%, Ben a percent then, but, but it's not just these war torn countries. It's low poverty countries period that what they've done is take jobs away from the children that are on holiday, are off for the summers. Yeah. And they've reduced the availability of great or decent paying jobs. So you've made the margin of the rich to the poor further apart. You've taken, you've almost eliminated middle class almost. Oh no, listen, the knock on effects, Steve, the knock on effects of this are myriad

and far reaching and insidious. I don't wanna put the blame on the immigrants. I wanna put the blame on the immigrants. I want to put the blame on the government that didn't do their job to build a cohesive society. Steve, thank you very much for the call. And let's welcome Chuck to the conversation. Chuck, what do you think? How do we fix this immigration problem of ours? Chuck, you there? I can't hear Chuck. Chuck, if you, if you, oh, there you are, Chuck. How do we fit? How do we fix the system we've got? Um, well, okay.

It's a fix it. We would have to go back to when the liberals modify the, um, migration requirements and migration statuses. There was a lot of bad takes and it felt like we were just simply dropping the bar because, um, my parents brought me to Canada when I was three years old from Hungary from Europe we came here because we you know wanted to leave communism and we wanted to work hard if you came to Our house you would have gula. She would have chicken paprika She would have letcho but when we went outside to work

We worked hard for not just ourselves, but for Canada, because Canada's success was our success. And it just feels like they've changed what is immigration. It feels like immigration now is just like the previous caller was saying, a cheap labor and also a tax base. They simply just want to over, like my parents are like, we actually miss home now. We're actually like, how's our passport? You know, and it's such a shame. It's so sad. I've never thought I'd get to this point in life where I'm like,

is Canada not going to be a good quality of life when I get older? I still have. Yeah, that's a good question. Chuck, Chuck, I've got a couple more calls to get through, but thank you for sharing your story. I really do appreciate it. Sure. Your breath.

Thank you, Chuck. Thank you. Have a great weekend. And let's say hi to Darryl. Darryl, how do we fix our immigration issues? Well, that's a whole other topic, isn't it? I think if you want to build one society, however, you need to excuse the noise. I apologize. We need to get rid of religious sectarianism. We need to kick off the weight of religious, well, sectarianism that we live under, that it keeps us separated. We need to embrace the values of the Enlightenment. We need to embrace the values of science and get rid of, and embrace the values of secular humanism. Well, Daryl, thank you very much. We have lived as a multicultural society with various religions

colliding in the public arena for years. It's worked before. We can get back that. We don't have to get rid of religion. We have to highlight the importance of what it means to be Canadian and get everybody on board with that. Thank you so much for your calls. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show. It's the Friday edition of the show. Very glad to be joined today by Dr. Orin Amate. We've got some really important topics to cover, especially as they relate to the mental health of our youth and how we can best shepherd an entire generation forward into being the best versions of themselves. Doc, welcome to the show. Doc C. Thank you, Ben.

Ben Let's start with a really stunning and disappointing story about an Edmonton area youth, 15 years old, who's been arrested for terrorism-related offenses. Talk to me, generally speaking, not necessarily about this one guy, but how are kids getting radicalized at such a young age? Well, first of all, it's access because, you know, unlike in the past, kids can go all around the world, so to speak, on their phones and their devices, so they're getting exposed to people who are just waiting for them. This particular person, I believe, was part of a ring that's led by a couple of, or a

number of young people who recruit them. And today's youth feel so isolated, disconnected, lost. And so, if you stumble into a place like this, where they welcome you with open arms, and we'll talk more about the procedures, but, you know, it's easier than ever for someone to, you know, to fall prey to these kinds of predators. But, Doc, when you say, you know, youth today feel lost and isolated, I mean, is it, that can't be a blanket statement about all youth. I mean, there has to be a prototype of vulnerable kid that these types of radical elements prey on.

Well, for sure, there's a prototype and we'll go over some of the factors, but the fact is, you know, none of these factors on their own will predict it. And many people don't have to have, you know, all of the factors. Let me look at some of the highest functioning university students, some professionals, and they just as easily, it seems, get recruited into these, you know, terrorist organizations. You know, it's not everybody, of course, but they get, whether it's recruited into an organization, or they can be incited to do things that, you know, it's not everybody of course, but whether it's recruited into an organization or they can be incited to do things like firebombing and so on that we're seeing, you know, people can be vulnerable, people you wouldn't expect can be vulnerable, but overall, the kind of person who's more likely to be susceptible, they are usually the loners, they feel isolated

from their peers, from society, even from their family. So that's one. Mental health issues are almost always there. At the very least, it's low self-esteem. You also have low self-worth. You have trauma often because they feel angry at the world. And the world, family can be peers to school, but they're looking to lash out. That's very, very common. You have to understand that, of course, these teens, when I say these teens are isolated, etc. Well, up until 25 years old, the brain is still developing as we know. So if someone has this malleable brain and they don't have the critical thinking capacity that some adults have, they are looking for simple solutions to really complex problems,

whether it's in their own world or the world writ large. So these places, these predators again, they offer what the kids think is a solution to their woes. And the number one thing, and I alluded to it, and this is the blanket statement, when you feel that you don't have meaning and purpose in life, that makes you meaningless. That's the crisis that people go through and kids can go through it as well. Like what am I doing here? What's my purpose? If someone offers you a chance, you know, for glory to be good, to, you know, to rule the world, so to speak, you know, take out the bad guys. That's really alluring to a lot of kids. But exactly, and that is sort of the sticking point

that my brain can't get over or around is that this attraction, this feeling of belonging, this feeling of purpose that would be injected into a lonely, isolated child's life, in my mind as a parent, would naturally and automatically and probably quite quickly and dramatically change certain aspects of my child. And that's where I don't understand how are parents missing the indicators? How are they missing the cues that something is off with their kid?

And that's really tricky because what I'm going to say would apply to so many kids. So I don't want kids to, I don't want parents to be paranoid about this, but when you see, normally when you see a dramatic change in a child's demeanor, their behavior, if you don't see them around, like you know, suddenly they're gone, you know, either they're in the room the entire time or they're out at night and so on, you know, that can be a sign, but it can also be a sign of regular, you know, teenage development. So it's really hard to know but you are right. You think there are some cases where the teens change is so dramatic. You think how

could the parents miss it? Well, a lot of parents, guess what, they're on their own devices, okay? Yeah. Right? And if you're in the middle of something, I mean I see this happen, this applies to any context but it's so much easier to detect when you're not in the middle of it but when you are in the middle, when you're in the middle of something, I mean I see this happen, this applies to any context, but it's so much easier to detect when you're not in the middle of it, but when you are in the middle, when you're ensconced in this, you know, your brain's not programmed to look out for these warning signs and so on, so people have this tendency to explain things away, and I've had so many patients in different contexts say, how did I miss it, whether it was a kid or a partner. Yeah, look, we're not gonna solve this today

And we're not gonna find a magic bullet That that allows a parent to uncover if their kid is being led astray But it just generally speaking doc is it I mean if you we just talked to our kids a little more it I can't imagine that that would be a bad thing No, it's not and you know again. It's going to solve it and kids can be deceptive, they can be cagey, they can just outright lie. But the fact is, as I said about this feeling of disconnect, of isolation, if a parent lets a kid know, I'm in your life, you may be the most annoying person to that kid, okay, which is what happens. But if they know no matter what my parents got my back, that may be potentially mitigated. But parents have to be more actively involved, which is really hard when the kid has this

device in their hand 24-7 and if they don't have it, they can find friends who have it. If it's a friend, you know with friends, you're less likely to see a group of kids, you know, all en masse, you know, getting recruited into these terrible types of organizations. So, you know, at least if the kid's connected to other people that you know, rather than these strangers on the internet, maybe that might help mitigate the risk a bit. Well, you've dovetailed right into the final conversation that I want to have with you. And it's about a study that was done by researchers who followed nearly 12,000 children on social

media and they found the more time 9 and 10 year olds spent engaged with social media, the more they demonstrated depressive symptoms two years later. So we're getting to the point where the anecdotal evidence is being now replaced by data-driven proof that social media is not a good thing for, as you said, that developing brain. Yeah, no, it's terrible because, and even for adults, you know, this being exposed to things out there that your brain's not prepared for, or at the very least, this idea that everybody else is leading a much better life than you are. They have money, they have friends, you know, they have everything.

You don't want this called upward social comparison. For adults to do this, it can cripple your mental health. For a child to do it, it's just so depressing because the kid feels, what can I do? And again, it fosters the sense of being excluded, being isolated, being alone. Yeah, what I've found with my kids, and I'm gonna ask you what you do with yours, but what I've found with my kids is I'm never gonna be able to convince them to get off their phones completely.

What I like to do is give them experiences and time with me that I guess they would prioritize over their phones at least for a little bit. So we go to the movies, that's something you can't do on your phone. And we have time together that way. We go to a fun restaurant. We cook something at home together

that I know they're gonna love. Those little things. If I can just get them off their phone for just a brief little time with me, we connect and they appreciate that there is a life beyond that screen. It's exactly what you're supposed to do, right? And you make it cater to their interests.

You don't impose what you want to do. Well, it's a good thing that I like doing what they like doing. I have tasted movies that is akin to a 15 year old. But hey, Doc, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you very much. These are really important conversations and I'm glad you're here to guide us. I appreciate it. Thank you as always, Ben.

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