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.

Jason Kenney Is Being Lied To

From Canadian Jewish News:

A recent Canadian billboard campaign in Hungary targeting would-be Roma asylum-seekers to Canada with the message that new immigration laws severely limit their ability to seek refuge from persecution here led [Hungarian film-maker Adam] Csillag to contact The CJN to alert Canada’s Jewish community to the situation in his country.

[...]

“Hungary is lying to Canadian politicians when it says it is democratic,” he said. “Jobbik and its paramilitary [groups] are doing terrible things to Roma. I witnessed serial killings of Roma in 2008. The police are against the Roma.”

In a recent phone interview from his home in Budapest, with his daughter Anna translating, he said public discourse in Hungary has reached the point where “a disturbing amount” of people are unabashed about insulting minorities, particularly Jews and Roma.

He said he’s now advising his daughter and all Jewish youth in Hungary to leave for their own safety and a better future.

Anna, who is half-Jewish on her father’s side, confirmed that for the past few years while attending university, her friends and classmates have never been shy about telling her how much they like her “despite” her heritage.

Kenney Defends The Government Re The Roma

An excerpt from a Jason Kenney interview, where he justifies the Canadian gov's  stance re Hungary's treatment of the Roma:

 I have repeatedly condemned those voices of intolerance and xenophobia and continue to so as I did when I was in Hungary, in part expressing my solidarity with those in the Roma community who face discrimination and who are targeted by this kind of xenophobic rhetoric... That's why I ... went out to a small Roma village and met with people, went to a Roma school ... met with grassroots from community leaders in Miskolz ... I would point out that the designation of a country of origin in our asylum system is not, as you suggest, some kind of a -- it doesn't offer a country bragging rights. 

We continue to say that Hungary and the central European countries must do much more to integrate and protect the Roma and other vulnerable minority communities. That doesn’t change. 

At the end of the day, the designation is not that a country is 100% safe for 100% of its citizens 100% of the time.  

Well, shit, I've condemned all sorts of people in my time.  I've even denounced them.  For example:

(Yeah that's me.  With my hair long Donald Sutherland looks a lot like me)

...but the point being, once I did all this denouncing nothing changed. 

So Kenney did a bunch of denouncing.  What if nothing changes in Hungary?  That country still gets 100% of the benefits of being a "safe country" whether of not they do anything to make their country safer for their Roma (or Jewish for that matter) minority.  Maybe they don't get "bragging rights", but they still get Canadian $ in any Canada/EU Free Trade Deal.

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.

Roma Sacrificed To Free Trade

Ex CBCer Karl Nerenberg talks  Bill C-31, and how it will allow countries like Hungary--where a far right drift in national politics threatens the local Roma community*--to be labelled  a safe “Designated Country of Origin” when it comes to evaluating refugees landed in Canada:

The government has already telegraphed that it wants to name all European Union countries as safe. To do otherwise would put a major spanner in the works of the current Canada-Europe Trade Agreement negotiations.

In fact, Kenney said on Friday that when the new measures come into play, Canada will be able to lift the visa requirements on the Czech Republic, a requirement which was imposed to stem the tide of Roma from that country seeking refugee status in Canada.

Lifting that visa will make Europe very happy, and eliminate one serious irritant in the trade agreement talks.

See?  And everyone thought Jason Kenney was just being a jerk.  In reality, its all so Canadians can get access to cheap clothing from the old East Block.  Anyway, the Nerenberg piece is a longish read, but a good one.

* The Jewish community too, although this fact hasn't made  the news reports as often.

The Roma, Jason Kenny, And The University of Haifa

The Roma Community Centre of Toronto, Canada has sent a letter--their second, because their first from earlier this month has not been responded to--to the University of Haifa in Northern Israel, asking that the University "reconsider granting an honorary doctorate to [Minister for Citizenship and Immigration] Jason Kenney", due to the fact that he's been trashing Roma refugees from Hungary in the name of "law and order" for the past six months.

There's even a connection to Roma hater Ezra Levant, The Ez being

...a member of the Canadian Friends of Haifa University’s Tribute Committee organizing the Nov. 4 ceremony to award Mr. Kenney the University of Haifa degree.

Whether U-of-Haifa wants to give Kenney a medal is their own business, obviously, but I do think they owe the RCC the courtesy of a response and an explanation.  You can find the email of their Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development through the link, if you want to pitch in.  I would note that almost  all of Canada's Jewish community groups, including the Tory-friendly CIJA, have expressed concern over the government's bill C-31, which would stigmatize Roma refugee claimants.

Ezra Levant In More Hate Speech Trouble

Gina Csanyi-Robah of the Roma Community Center writes:

As a result of Levant's hate speech targeting our community, the RCC has been in contact with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and is currently writing formal complaints to the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council, the Canadian Media Association, the Canadian Ethnic media Association, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

There are examples through the link.  One of the nastier bits is:

Being a Gypsy isn't like being Black, or being Gay, or being a woman or even Romanian, where many Gypsies come from. Just like being from Sicily doesn't make you part of the Mafia. Being a Gypsy is a positive choice, like being a Blood or a Crip, like joining the Cosa Nostra. For centuries, these roving highway gangs have mocked the law and robbed their way across Europe. Now, because of our broken refugee system, they're here in Canada in the thousands. And they've brought the Gypsy Crime Wave with them. Yeah, no thanks, I'm not interested in calling them 'Roma' or 'Travelers' or having a Human Rights Commission investigate where we as a society have done them wrong, maybe dispatching social workers (laughs) the social workers will just have their wallets stolen. I want to dispatch cops and send the bad Gypsies to Hungary on the next plane. Just warn the flight attendants (chuckles) not to wear any jewelry on the flight!"

The OHRC doesn't adjudicate hate speech, only racist signs and symbols and the like, so I doubt that approach will go anywhere.  But Ezra's is a sickening enough diatribe that it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't run afoul of CBSC regulations...again.

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.

Refugee Health Cutbacks: Canadian Jewish Groups Respond (Or Not)

Since the negative consequences of Bill C-31 have become apparent over the last month or so--for example,  many refugee claimants will lose access to life-saving drugs such as insulin, and to preventive care--several Jewish organizations have expressed concerns with the law.  They have been especially troubled by those sections of it relating to the prevention of illegitimate refugee claims.  Designating countries like Hungary as "safe" would  make it near impossible for  claims from Hungarian Roma to succeed, even though the country is far from safe for this particular minority group.  And due to their common experiences of persecution during the 2nd World War, the Jewish and Roma communities have often been thought to share an historical bond.


The Toronto Board of Rabbis has spoken out in an open letter to the PM.  The Montreal Holocaust Centre has also gone public with its objections.  Even noble Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel has  stepped into the fray.  But what of those groups typically seen as speaking for the Canadian Jewish diaspora as a whole?  


Well, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has issued a statement that comes across as both minimalist and mush-mouthed.  From the Globe article linked above:


Shimon Fogel, the CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said his organization agrees with many of the changes the Conservative government has made to refugee policy and with the goal of preventing bogus claims. But, with regard to the health benefits, “we have some concerns, and we have registered some of them with the government.”

So, in other words, kiss the Roma good-by.  And CIJA's other objections will apparently be  whispered to the relevant government minister behind closed doors where they can be noted and then safely ignored.

B'nai Brith's position on the legislation, on the other hand, is a complete mystery.  They've said nothing in the newspapers or on their website that I can find, and have not (yet) responded to the email I sent them.  Perhaps, however, this story from June 26th offers a clue.  In it, a human rights lawyer named David Matas is quoted at length, as he is representing a number of church groups who have challenged C-31 in court.  And good on him for that.  But not mentioned anywhere in the piece is the fact that Mr. Matas is senior legal counsel to B'nai Brith Canada.  Now, Mr. Matas has done considerable  good work outside of BB, but it nevertheless seems significant to me that in the case of Bill C-31 he has been forced to act without the imprimatur of the organization he is most closely associated with

So why the silence/near-silence from Canada's two most important Jewish organizations?  Well, one can only speculate, and so I would speculate  that they have already been courted by the Harper government in the form of its unrelenting support for Israel.  Here, as in the case of Bill C-304, the government has asked for their silence as a quid pro quo.  To me that sounds like a crummy deal, but it seems one that they have been willing to make.