Gimme Shelter: Bernie Farber On Church Sanctuary

From yesterday's G&M:

How is it possible that in Canada in 2013 “Sanctuary,” a medieval concept of Church protection, is still necessary? As we reflect on today, International Human Rights Day, we must also contemplate the fact that desperate, stateless people have come here with a hope that Canada would treat them fairly, would strive to understand the brutal circumstances which forced them to leave their homes and dream of being welcomed in a country with a once proud reputation for kindness and sensitivity. Instead they have had to go into hiding under the protection of a Church with the hope that compassion will in the end win out.

In other news, fans will be sad to note that Bernie will not be running in any Thornhill by-election.  Also, as you can see from the Globe pic it looks like he's got a new 'stache.  Very dapper.

PS.  The site of JRAN, noted in the article, can be found here.

JRAN On Canada's Refugee Policy

In the resurrected Canadian Jewish News:

On Dec. 1, the Jewish National Fund will be holding an event to raise funds for the Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary Visitor and Education Centre in Israel. The facility itself sounds like a wonderful place to visit and an important and safe refuge for migrating birds. Yet it is ironic that a prime minister who is responsible for making it more difficult for families to find protection in Canada would have this facility named for him. 

Read the whole letter through the link.  Coincidentally, Canada the day this letter was published, The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) released  Bordering on Failure: Canada-U.S. Border Policy and the Politics of Refugee Exclusion.  From the executive summary:

...this report finds that

1.Canada'is'systematically'closing'its'borders'to'asylum'seekers'and'avoiding' its'refugee'protection'obligations'under'domestic'and'international'law;''

2. Through' the' Safe' Third' Country' Agreement,' Canada' jeopardizes' asylum' seekers’'ability'to'obtain'fundamental'legal'protections'by'returning'them' to'the'United'States'despite'clear'deficiencies'in'the'U.S.'asylum'system;''

3. The'Safe'Third'Country'Agreement'has'prompted'a'rise'in'human'smuggling' across' the' CanadaFU.S.' border,' making' the' border' more' dangerous' and'disorderly,'and'raising'security'concerns'for'Canada'and'the'United'States.!!'

So there you have it.

Bernie Farber Has Advice

Now that Jason Kenney has left his position as Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Bernie makes some suggestions to his successor, Chris Alexander:

Refugees - Remove Hungary and Mexico from the Designated Safe Country list. This can be done immediately and without legislative reform. These designations impact vulnerable communities - ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ community and women facing gender violence. The Minister can also propose an amendment to the law to provide for an expert human rights panel to assess whether a country might be safe, rather than allow designation by statistics. And he can seek to amend the law to provide an automatic periodic review after designation and add appeal rights to persons from designated countries.

I haven't written much about Mexico in this regard.  In the case of Hungary, however, it is quite clear that the country is no longer safe for either its Roma or Jewish minorities.  What is particularly galling is the possibility that these groups are being sacrificed in the name of a Canada-EU Free Trade agreement.

Bernie also suggests:

Health Care - Change the Order in Council to restore the same health care system that has worked well since 1957. No legislative amendment is required, it can be done immediately. Institute a means test as suggested by Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care.

The kind of changes that Bernie wants rolled back were made to the Interim Federal Health Program, I believe.  These recently resulted in a mid-East refugee, who had left home because he had been persecuted for his Christian beliefs, being denied chemotherapy in this country.  As Brad Wall said at the time:

“It’s unbelievable that some of the decisions that have been taken federally are having this impact on people who are clearly the most vulnerable, refugees who are obviously fleeing something quite terrible — that’s why they’re refugees..."

“On the face of it, you just consider the case of this particular gentleman or others who, for example, as it was pointed out … might need prenatal care, this is just common sense. You just do this.

“This is the kind of country we are. You cover it.”

In this case, Saskatchewan eventually picked up the cost of treatment.  So, to prevent the poor fellow from dying, the province paid for a bad federal policy.

And Bernie's last recommendation:

Immigration - Scrap the proposed regulatory amendment to lowering the age of dependency to 18 from 22. This will affect every family applying for permanent residence in Canada. No family believes a 19 year old should be excluded from a family application and left behind.

I am not terribly familiar with these particular changes, I will leave this bit unglossed.

Bernie's  piece, incidentally, is entitled Restoring Canada’s Dignity and Respect, and the entirety of it  lies behind the Globe pay-wall.  Good luck digging it out.

Farber On Cdn Human Rights

With little fanfare, Canada was scolded earlier this year by both the United Nations and Amnesty International over its human rights record. Yes you read this correctly — Canada.

The two areas that attracted the most attention by the UN/Amnesty International human rights experts were Canada’s record when it came to refugees and, internally, the manner in which we continue to discriminate against our First Nations people.

While politicians mouth the usual platitudes in support of refugees and First Nations their actions demonstrate the platitudes are nothing but a smoke screen.

A nice column to kick off the holiday of Passover.

Who Said This About The Government Changes To The Interim Federal Health Program

...that have resulted in a refugee from the Mid-East being denied his chemo?

 ...unbelievable that some of the decisions that have been taken federally are having this impact on people who are clearly the most vulnerable, refugees who are obviously fleeing something quite terrible — that’s why they’re refugees...” 

[...]

“On the face of it, you just consider the case of this particular gentleman or others who, for example, as it was pointed out … might need prenatal care, this is just common sense. You just do this.

“This is the kind of country we are. You cover it.”

[...]

“This country is rich. We are rich beyond measure compared to the countries where these folks are fleeing from and so it’s our view that we should just be there to help.

“That’s kind of a basic Canadian value, I think...” 

Was it a bunch of crazy Liberal Jews?  A bunch of less Liberal Jews?  No, it was right-wing Premier of Saskatchewan Brad Wall, who apparently has at least one compassionate bone in his body. Unlike  Immigration Minister Jason Kenney or his PM Stephen Harper.

And the refugee in question fled his home country because "he was persecuted for being Christian". Does Stephen Harper suddenly hate Christians?  Probably not.  But then what can we learn from this?  Simple: its actually very difficult to craft your laws re refugees so that they fuck over the Roma exclusively.  Discriminate against one group, and there will always be collateral damage to other groups not on your shit list.

CIJA On Bill C-31: Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable?

I wrote not too long ago about CIJA's (The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs)  meager response to Bill C-31.   Now The Centre has issued a meatier statement on the legislation.  While its tenor of the backgrounder is, in general,  kissy-assy towards the Harper government,  in the end it concludes:

...there are certain areas where small but significant improvements should be considered by the government:

Clear provisions should be included for how a designated country could be removed from the DCO list should the situation there warrant a re-evaluation;

In our view, DCO refugee applicants should have access to the same health coverage as non-DCO claimants, especially in light of the potential cost savings derived from the shortened processing time established by Bill C-31.

Care should be taken to avoid separating families that are part of an irregular arrival, particularly those with children under 16 who might not be detained with their parents. Once an irregular arrival claimant’s identity and status have been confirmed and they have been concretely determined to be a legitimate refugee, they should be treated the same as all other successful refugee claimants and not subjected to a five year waiting period before they can sponsor their families to join them.

Tone aside, as far as I can tell this puts CIJA more or less on the same page as The Toronto Board of Rabbis, Elie Wiesel , and other critics of the legislation within the Canadian Jewish community.  Certainly in regards to the health coverage enjoyed DCO refugee claimants.  On the topic of claimants from DCO nations that are safe for their majority populations, but unsafe for certain minority groups within the country (example: the Roma in Hungary), CIJA takes a somewhat weaker position, asking for clarification of what needs to happen for a state to move from the DCO to non-DCO list.  And I haven't hear anyone else object to the five year waiting period (although that may be because I haven't paid sufficient attention). 


Still waiting for BB to chime in.  They have remained notably silent over the past month or so.

Serious Stuff

Me being me, this post from yesterday morning on the Federal Government's new legislation to combat human smuggling was a bit flippant. Trust the Galloping Beaver to finger some of the real issues with the proposed law:

...say for example you're a member of the Karen ethnic group living in Mah Sot refugee camp, Thailand. You cannot go back to Burma because the disgusting bunch of military fetishists running the show over routinely send the army after you and friends. You are effectively stateless and cannot claim citizenship in Burma or Thailand because neither country really wants much to do with you. Canada comes along and grants you refugee status and you come here to live, leaving many of your family and friends behind. When you are processed and formally recognised as a refugee by Canada, you are granted permanent residency.

After a number of years, you can apply citizenship and thus a Canadian passport. However, before that you can do that you may apply for a Travel Document because you can't actually get a passport from your home country, or the country you fled to. This travel document legally protects you because it says to foreign governments 'I'm now under the protection of Canada, do not mess with me'. If you want to travel to see family and friends still stuck eating sandy rice in a dusty camp, this travel document allows that to happen. You are free now, and can live, play and travel with more security than you've ever had in your life.

What the Conservatives now want to do it seems is take that security away and punish refugee claimants for being refugee claimants. While your claim is being processed, they want you to effectively remain a prisoner within Canada. Don't go home, don't visit your dying mother, don't got back to celebrate the wedding of your sister. Not only that, but the Conservatives also seem to want to be able to revoke your claim should you ever leave the country.

I'd also make note of this bit of commentary from the Vancouver Sun:

David Poopalapillai, spokesman for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said he was particularly troubled with the provision that prevents those smuggled into the country from sponsoring family members for five years. "Once you become a landed immigrant, you've been accepted as a legitimate refugee claimant," he said. "You say to them you can't sponsor your spouse or your kids? That's inhuman. You want the family to suffer and suffer? It's not the Canadian way of doing business."

The opposition parties have promised to give the new legislation a "good, long look", and hopefully they will do that. Some aspects of it--targeting the owners of ships like the MV Sun Sea--appear salvageable, as they are aimed at the criminal activity that drives human smugglers, and not the actual smuggled refugees. Given how the committee process works in a minority parliament, there's no doubt that some kind of bill can emerge from said process that may actually do some good. The opposition parties should rework the proposed legislation so it becomes that bill, give it back to the government, and see if they'll sign.

The Problem With Conservative Math...

...is it makes you do silly things:

OTTAWA - The federal government will unveil a sweeping package of reforms Thursday aimed at cracking down on refugee fraudsters, QMI Agency has learned.

Among other things, Ottawa will make it easier to kick out bogus refugees who travel back to the country they claim they are fleeing from for vacations, and will move to restrict the health-care benefits refugees receive in Canada while they wait for their claims to be processed.

Government sources said the package of measures to be announced Thursday is partly a response to stories QMI Agency published earlier this year about abuse of Canada's immigration and refugee system.

In August, QMI Agency reported on a secret government survey that showed that many Tamils who came to Canada claiming that their lives were in danger in their native Sri Lanka subsequently returned safely to that country. They would then come back to Canada and wait out their refugee claim.

In legislation to be tabled Thursday, the government will make it easier to revoke someone's refugee status immediately if a refugee claimant heads home for holidays, birthdays or to sponsor other family members.

"It's a serious problem," said one government source.

Well,the only serious problem in this case was with QMI columnist Brian Lilley's mathematical abilities, which assigned statistical significance to a "review of files" (not a "survey") that Stats Canada insisted did not have any. Furthermore, the new legislation does not seem to mention revoking the refugee status of someone who returns home during a lull in their country's civil war; since this is apparently what most of the Tamils in the Statscan report were doing, it wouldn't likely effect them one way or another. Which is an advantage of legislation based on fake math and aimed at fixing imaginary problems: only non-existent people get hurt.

More worrisome is this provision:

CTV News reported Wednesday that the new legislation will give the federal government new powers to detain migrants and human smugglers for up to one year or until their identity and status is determined. The network also reported that bogus asylum seekers will remain behind bards until they are deported.

Maybe its just because I hate the sound of the lute, but forcing refugees to remain in proximity to travelling songsmen is akin to torture, except that when you are water-boarded at least you eventually pass out.

Why Can't The Liberals Do Stuff Like This?

And the rest is here.

Even when the Liberals score a comparable tiny triumph, it looks a bit scuzzy.

Pity that the NDP are a bunch of hapless dreamers. Might be worth voting for them otherwise.