Good grief! Another urgent task for the nanny state (especially to help, er, nannies). This editorial in “Canada’s National Newspaper”, revealing a new national crisis, reads right out of the Crvena zvezda:

New Canadians need integration into water
…
According to a new study by Ipsos Reid, recent immigrants to Canada accept that swimming is a necessary life skill. But one-fifth do not know how to swim – four times the rate of those born in Canada, says the poll, the first of its kind to examine the influence of ethnicity on attitudes and behaviours toward water safety.

That means new Canadians, many of whom did not learn to swim in their countries of origin, are at a much higher risk of drowning. More attention must be given to make sure newcomers know how and where to enroll themselves and their children in formal swim classes…

…Employers of nannies who enter the country under the live-in caregiver program could also consider assisting their employees to register for classes…

Water safety shouldn’t just be for people born in Canada. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn to swim.

But please to explain how immigrants are somehow prevented from having that “opportunity to learn to swim”.

Mark
Ottawa