Federal
Immigration
Minister
Jason Kenney was in St. John's Monday 5
April to begin a cross-Canada
tour to
promote proposed changes to the refugee
system.
Kenney
said
there are two kinds
of refugees. The first are people who live
in refugee camps and are
victims of
war, ethnic cleansing or persecution and
can't return home.
The second group of refugees come to
Canada seeking asylum. Currently,
those
people face a gruelling process to get
their claims approved or denied.
Kenney
said part of the refugee system is broken,
as there are 60,000 people
waiting
for a decision. Getting a hearing can take
up to 19 months and the full
process
could take years by the time all
administrative appeals have been
heard. People
making false refugee claims have clogged
the system, Kenney said.
The reforms will also bring in a new
appeals process for refugees who
feel
their original claim was turned down in
error, Kenney said.
He said the proposed changes have been
supported by the Canadian Bar
Association, immigration lawyers,
academics and many newspaper
editorials. He
said only two or three interest groups, a
few lawyers and the federal
NDP are
opposing them. Kenney said officials in
his department have been
working on the
changes for years and the federal Liberals
seem to be in support of the
reforms
so far.
The
Minister's
spin reinforces
the old propaganda lines.
On his two kinds of refugees, I prefer a
more realistic perspective. 1.
those
Canada picks and chooses to take from
other countries as political
leverage and
for its own interests 2.those Canada is
treaty-bound a) not to send
back until
b) it has determined their formal refugee
status c) without
discrimination. On
this and on Canada's humanitarian
tradition my cynical mind recalls
some
memorable words of Charles De Gaulle -
"Countries don't have friends -
they have interests".
On the bogged down system: the evidence
seemed clear enough all last
fall that
the system became bogged down because
Kenny and the Tories caused it to
bog
down by failing to replace the required
number of Board Members in a
timely
manner. On the people staying around for
years, some suggest - I think
at least
plausibly - that these and undocumented
workers are tolerated to
provide a pool
of low cost exploitable labour which
Western Countries would otherwise
lack.
The plus for those involved is that they
get a form of temporary
protection.
The truth is they are likely also a needed
part of our economy.
The
one
positive element people
point to is the never implemented paper
review which always was an
inadequate
and partial appeal. This is a previously
used and soiled sop to NGOs to
offset
cutting the board decision makers in a
refugee hearing from 2 to 1 in
2002. Now
the proposals cut that from 1 IRB member
to 0.
Remember we don't need to perjure
ourselves. If the truth is there is
nothing
good here and a pack of lies - we don't
need to keep looking and
looking thinking
there must be something - we just ought to
calmly tell it like it is.
