With the smooth passage of controversial Bill C-50 in parliament last week, the hypocrisy of the Liberal Party — the largest opposition bloc — stands exposed. The party has always claimed to be minorities-friendly, has attacked the "right wing’’ and denounced the "anti-immigration’’ policies of the ruling Conservatives.

However, most Liberals abstained from voting against the contentious Bill, which will fast track professional-class immigration and effect family reunifications — besides giving special powers to the immigration minister to decide who should get in.

The Bill was being opposed by human rights’ groups, and Liberal MPs were openly challenging it outside parliament. But they decided to abstain when the Bill came up during a critical confidence vote last Tuesday.

Their actions not only saved the minority government from falling, but also made their lives and jobs easier. What the anti-Bill C-50 protesters could not achieve, the Liberals could have achieved without much difficulty by simply blocking its passage.

The Liberals are clearly scared to face a mid-term election, as the polls are not in their favour. Though some Liberals will claim that they do not want to push Canada into an election that might create a racial divide among the voters on the contentious immigration issue.

Either way, they have been consistently avoiding a situation that would result in an early election.

The truth is that both the Liberals and the Tories have always played politics with immigration issues.

When the Liberals were in power, the immigration authorities declined a visa for the widow of an Indo-Canadian man who died in a road accident to attend his funeral. The Tory administration did the same to the parents of an Indian immigrant who died recently in a road mishap, and to the brothers of a Filipino, who was battling with cancer and wished to see his siblings before dying.

The two parties need to commit themselves to streamlining and humanizing the immigration system instead of making it more insensitive and cumbersome.

The two parties remind us of the cats in Mouseland, the fable that was narrated by Tommy Douglas many years ago.

According to the story, the mice were ruled by the cats that made the rules good for them but not for their subject mice. Much like those cats, the two parties worry more about their political fortunes than the people.