Your Thoughts and Feedback are Welcome

Hello everyone!  Welcome, and thank you for being here!  My regular Weekend post is here...Wonder Filled Weekend

By now most of you, if not all of you, are familiar with my housing situation, but I will mention it briefly for those of you who are not.  I have been on the low cost/social housing list in Montreal for 6 and a half years now, and "my number" has still not come up, although it is smaller than it was in the beginning. Still, it seems like forever, especially since my income is quite small, which is why I applied for this in the first place!

I was talking with one of my cousins yesterday and she said something that really has me wondering now.  See, and again, for those of you who may not be aware of this, we have had MANY people, thousands, actually, that have crossed our Quebec border from the U.S., illegally, and on foot.  I believe the majority of these people are originally from Haiti, so their mother tongue would be Creole, and they would be fluent in French.  

Although I can empathize with their plight and believe me, being a highly sensitive person I am able to put myself in someone else's shoes, especially since I have been through many difficulties myself. O.K., perhaps not the same difficulties as they or others, but enough that I am able to feel for those who are in difficult situations.

Now, these people who have crossed our Quebec border illegally from the U.S. are able to receive Medicare from our health care system as well as, in some cases, Welfare benefits.  This is no doubt putting a strain on our system here, and the waiting times in hospital emergency rooms here are already quite long, (as some of you will know from a previous post I made a few months back, as I was one of the people who was at an emergency room in a hospital and was there for over 12 hours and still hadn't received a diagnosis!), so because it was so late (past midnight), and I don't have a car and could not afford to pay for a taxi, I was forced to leave without a diagnosis in order to make sure I could take the bus home!  I had finally gotten a diagnosis from an ophthalmologist who, thanks to my own family doctor who took over my case the following Monday.  I had uveitis, which is an optic condition that can cause blindness, if left untreated.  Anyway, thank goodness it was diagnosed and treated successfully.  In my case, the ophthalmologist had said that the cause of this attack of uveitis was because the arthritis was attacking my body.  Ugh.

Anyway, getting back to topic here....as I mentioned, I have been on this waiting list for low cost housing in Montreal for 6 and a half years now.  When I talked with my cousin yesterday, she suggested that perhaps all the illegal immigrants/refugees crossing our Quebec border may be playing a part in making my waiting list longer?  Now, don't get me wrong, I am not a racist and do not judge people based on the colour of their skin, where they are from or anything like this, and my heart goes out to people who are in even a worse situation than I am!  In this case, however, and if it is true that the refugees coming here and who have crossed our border illegally are playing a part in the waiting time for my receiving a low cost apartment, I am royally annoyed.  See, what is annoying me is that the fact remains that they have crossed our border ILLEGALLY....let us not minimize this fact!  If I were to do the same thing, cross the U.S. (or any other country's border) illegally, should I expect to receive a warm welcome and be entered into the welfare system and be able to access the free health care provided by the country?  Absolutely not!  I would be foolish to even assume this.  Now I do not know if this is indeed what is or may be happening, but if it is, can you understand my frustration?  I was born here, worked here all my life, lived here all my life, and have health issues and my finances are so tight that I am unable to afford "the average" rent costs, hence my having applied for the low cost housing.

And not only that, but I am embarrassed to have made a couple of posts on my blog asking for donations...which is something I have never done before and hopefully will never have to do again. However, I am going about it legally...I am not stealing from a store or individual, and I am not asking for something that someone is not able to provide, I am simply asking those who wish to, and are able to, to help.  I hate having to do this and if these low cost people had taken my situation into proper consideration, I would have an apartment that I can afford right now.  :(   There is a Go Fund Me link on the right hand column of my blog, and I am very grateful for those who have helped and for those who can help.  

Anyway, thank you so much for listening, and I would really appreciate your feedback and thoughts.  All comments are welcome, and I allow everyone an opportunity to comment, just type in your name if you are not a registered Blogger user, so that I know who you are, or else I will see "Anonymous", and comments like these are usually spam, which I do not allow or publish.  Comments must be family friendly, as I have readers from all over the world and even children, so I thank you so much for respecting this.  Any spam comments are promptly deleted and do not get published.

Love and hugs to you all!