Saturday, December 15, 2012

CIJA On Designated Countries Of Origin

In response to Kenney's list, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs remains relatively mush-mouthed, but notes the following points of concern:

However, we believe there are two key deficiencies in the DCO regulations that should be addressed. First, there are no clear provisions for how a designated country could be removed from the list should the situation there merit a re-evaluation. Second, DCO applicants awaiting a ruling by the IRB only have access to the same basic healthcare coverage extended to failed claimants awaiting deportation. We propose that DCO refugee applicants receive the same health coverage as non-DCO applicants awaiting adjudication of their claims, especially given their expedited evaluation process.

As others have pointed out previously, the CBC story says that giving the EU a clan bill of health, whatever the conditions on the ground in countries like Hungary "...removes a major irritant in the process of negotiating a Canadian trade agreement with the EU".  Interestingly enough, CIJA is "encouraged by" this latter country's recent attempts to protect its Roma and Jewish populations.  I suppose they're thinking  about stuff like this.

2 comments:

RuralRoots said...


...so, do you think the trade treaty with the EU was the driving force behind this list of "safe" countries??
it seems so to me, in that the list doesn't include Australia, nor New Zealand; and I would have thought Japan was in a similar category as preety well all of those that are listed?!?!

brennerman said...

In the days of Canadian Jewish Congress there would have been a strong condemnation of this policy. I mourn the loss of a Canadian Jewish community that use to stand up for social justice.