A former Liberal MP has written an editorial calling for the immediate resignation of Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, claiming the minister mislead applicants of an immigration pilot program.



Former Immigration Minister and five-term Liberal MP Joe Volpe, who now runs the Corriere Canadese, an Italian language newspaper based out of Toronto, has published multiple editorials denouncing the Liberal cabinet minister.



“Even in the dying days of the 2019 election campaign, Ahmed Hussen’s questionable immigration policies and programs are taking their toll on Canadian residents who placed their trust in his “vision” and his Pilot Programs,” Volpe wrote in an editorial last Thursday.



Volpe slammed Hussen for allegedly misleading undocumented immigrants in the construction sector on a pilot program that would give them a path to legal residency.



Volpe, himself an Italian immigrant, also accuses Liberal MPs of spreading misinformation on the pilot program and bizarrely claiming the program never existed. This, after former Liberal immigration minister John McCallum publicly discussed the same program.



“Several Toronto area MPs, Julie Dzerowicz and Peter Fonseca among them (although the Tribunal did not name them in its findings), were active in promoting the Pilot Project,” he wrote.



Volpe has become a vocal critic of the Trudeau government since leaving politics, having recently criticized the government for giving generous clipping contracts to the mainstream media.



Hussen, MP for York South-Weston, has been one of the most outspoken members of Trudeau government, calling his critics “intolerant” and divisive” when they disagree with his politics.



In June, Hussen raised eyebrows by suggesting that refugees should be admitted as economic migrants, while at the same time advocating for a dramatic increase in the number of refugees accepted to Canada.



“My wish is that we continue to increase levels in our immigration system for refugees. I’m very open to saying that, and I will do whatever I can, in whatever position I am in, to continue to push for higher refugee numbers every single year,” Hussen said. This flies directly in the face of public opinion, where the majority of Canadians want fewer refugees and lower immigration levels.



In July, while thousands of asylum seekers entered Canada through the United States, Hussen called Ontario Social Services Minister Lisa Macleod “not Canadian” for arguing that her province should not solely responsible for covering the costs of housing asylum seekers.



Volpe ended his latest editorial by saying that Hussen and the other MPs who pretended the pilot project did not exist should resign.



“If they were honourable individuals, they would resign their public office and forgo the effort to seek re-election.”