Transcript Document

An overview of
Canada’s refugee
policy
Canadian Council for Refugees
March 2005
Refugees are part of Canada

From 1995 to 2004 Canada welcomed
more than 2.1 million immigrants.

This included 265,685 (12% of the whole)
refugees granted permanent residence.
How much do you know about
Canada’s record towards refugees?
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Canada’s early record

Refugee protection was not part of
Canadian law until 1978.

Early immigration policy discriminated
by race:
British and northern Europeans were
encouraged to immigrate whereas...
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Canada’s early record
Chinese immigrants had to pay a Head
Tax (increased to $500 in 1903);
Asians and others deemed undesirable
were excluded by the "continuous
passage" policy, and;
Immigration Department used its
discretion to discourage Black
immigrants.
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Komagatu Maru
South Asians came
to Vancouver on the
ship the Komagatu
Maru in 1914 to test
the "continuous
journey” policy.
They were refused
entry.
Vancouver Public Library
photo no.6231
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Discrimination against Jews
 In
the 1930s and 40s thousands
of European Jews tried to flee
Nazi Germany.
 Motivated
by anti-semitism, the
Canadian government used its
discretion to exclude Jews.
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Discrimination against Jews
1938: Canadian citizens tried,
unsuccessfully, to change this
policy. They did manage to get the
Government to admit some nonJews, including the Canadian Czech
shoe industrialist Thomas Bata (of
the Bata Shoe Museum) and 82 of
his workers.
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International treaty to
recognize refugees
 1951:
The Geneva Convention
relating to the status of refugees
defined who was a refugee and
their right to legal protection and
assistance from those states who
signed.
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Definition in
1951 Refugee Convention

a refugee is any person who:
" …owing to well-founded fear of being
persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular
social group or political opinion, is outside
the country of his (sic) nationality and is
unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling
to avail himself of the protection of that
country…"
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1951 Refugee Convention
 '51
Convention
was limited to
protecting the
approximately
50 million
European
refugees after
World War II
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Addition to 1951 Convention

1967: Additional protocol expanded
geographical scope of the Convention as
problem of displacement around the world
was recognized.

'51 Convention refugee definition still
applies today. States interpret it to include
– or restrict – certain categories of people.
For example, Canada recognizes women
and gays fleeing gender persecution as
"members of a particular social group."
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Canada and '51 Refugee Convention

Canada didn’t sign '51 Convention (and
protocol) until 1969. (The RCMP advised
against it based on fears it would restrict
Canada’s ability to deport refugees for
security reasons.)

Before 1969, refugees were selected overseas
and admitted to Canada by group, e.g:
1956 - over 37,000 Hungarians
1968 - nearly 11,000 Czech refugees
1973 - more than 7,000 Asian Ugandans
1975 - nearly 1,200 Chileans
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Cold War
" enemies "

Throughout the 1960’s and 70’s,
Canada readily granted refuge to
people fleeing communist regimes.

There were two designated classes,
East European Self-Exiled Persons
and Indochinese Designated Class, for
such people.
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1978 New Canadian
Immigration Act

1978 was first time an Immigration Act
included a humanitarian category for
refugees needing protection and
resettlement.

It also established the Private Sponsorship
of Refugees Program which allowed
Canadians to be involved in the
resettlement of refugees.
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Canadians sponsor refugees

1979: Canadians enthusiastically applied
to sponsor Boat People under new private
sponsorship program.

1986: UN awarded the Nansen medal to
the Canadian people in "recognition of
their major and sustained contribution to
the cause of refugees".
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Canadian Charter applies to
refugee claimants (1)
April 4, 1985:
Supreme Court
rules the
Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms
protects the basic
rights and freedoms
of refugee claimants
in Canada.
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Canadian Charter applies to
refugee claimants (2)
• Refugee determination must
respect the principles of fundamental
justice.
• Fundamental justice requires that,
where credibility is an issue, refugee
claimants must have an oral hearing.
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Singh Decision 1985

Known as the Singh decision, this Supreme
Court decision declared that refugee
claimants are entitled to basic standards of
rights protection.

1988 Immigration and Refugee Board to
created to hear refugee claims.

April 4, date of Singh decision, is annually
commemorated by Canadian refugee
supporters as “Refugee Rights Day”.
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Where are refugees today?
Asia 45.3%
Africa
22.2%
Europe
21.9%
Americas
10.2%
Oceania
0.4%
Statistics from UNHCR 2002 Statistical Yearbook, published July 2004.
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Global cooling toward refugees
Today refugees still need protection, but
many states in the industrialized world are
becoming less welcoming to refugees by:
making it harder for refugees to reach
their territory and,
 enacting measures that make it less likely
that those who arrive get a fair hearing.

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Interdiction of refugees (1)
• Officials are stationed at airports to
stop anyone, including refugees, without
proper documentation from embarking
planes for Western countries.
• U.S. intercepts and detains Cuban and
Haitian asylum-seekers trying to reach it
by boat, and mandatorily detains certain
categories of asylum-seekers who arrive
in the U.S.
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Interdiction of refugees (2)
2001 Australian
Government turned
back Iraqi and Afghan
asylum-seekers trying to
reach its shores and
later tried to discredit
them by accusing
them of throwing their
children overboard.
www.truthoverboard.com
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Canada seen as leader
in refugee protection
Relative to other countries, Canada
has earned a reputation as a leader
with some POSITIVE ELEMENTS:
a) an independent expert tribunal,
with excellent documentation,
b) gender guidelines
c) until recently, minimal detention of
refugee claimants
d) an active resettlement program.
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Canada’s leadership is relative
However, Canada ’s system has serious
shortcomings:





Stopping refugee claimants from reaching
Canada.
Refusing to provide appeal.
Delays in processing applications of sponsored
refugees.
Slow processing of refugees’ spouses and childen
to join them in Canada.
Not challenging anti-refugee discourse.
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Issues for Canada:
Safe Third Country Agreement
(1)
December 2004 Canadian Government
designated the US a “safe third
country”, closing the land border to
most refugee claimants.
Only a few exceptions apply (e.g. if
one has family with status in Canada)
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Issues for Canada:
Safe Third Country Agreement (2)
But the U.S. is not safe for refugees
because:
• 1000’s of refugee claimants, including
children, are detained in the U.S., some
for years.
• U.S. fails to protect refugees due to
narrow interpretation of refugee
Convention and rules such as one-year
bar to claiming.
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Issues for Canada:
Safe Third Country Agreement (3)
• U.S. discriminates by detaining
Haitians based on nationality; people
from Muslim countries are at high risk
of detention.
• 2002 U.S. deportation of Canadian
citizen Maher Arar to Syria
demonstrates their low regard for
human rights of some non-U.S.
citizens.
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Issues for Canada:
Canada refuses to implement appeal
Many refugees are recognized in Canada,
but some are mistakenly denied:
No appeal on merits.
 The Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights has urged Canada to
provide appeal.
 2002 Canadian Parliament adopted law
that created Refugee Appeal Division but
Government has refused to implement it.

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Issues for Canada:
Sponsored refugees wait for years
As of 2005, more than 12,000 refugees
overseas are waiting for a decision:

Refugees sponsored in 2005 may not
even be interviewed until 2008.

Private sponsors in Canada lose hope.
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Issues for Canada:
Families wait to be reunited
Some refugees in Canada wait years for
their spouses/children to be allowed to
join them:

Barriers in processing (e.g. DNA testing)
and scarce resources in Canadian visa
posts cause delays.

Lives of family members overseas can be
at risk.
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Issues for Canada:
Anti-refugee discourse
Some Canadian media and experts carry
simplistic messages that dangerously present
one group of refugees as more deserving than
another:

Refugees in camps are presented as "good"
refugees who wait patiently overseas.

Refugees who come to Canada to claim
refugee status are presented as "bad",
accused of jumping an imaginary queue.
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What is wrong with this message?

It allows governments to manipulate public
opinon by scapegoating refugee claimants (e.g.
in 2001 the Australian Government used antirefugee rhetoric to win the election).

It violates international law which obliges states
(including Canada) to respect the right to flee
persecution to seek refuge.

It creates hate and fear toward a vulnerable
group of people.
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Future challenges
What do
YOU think
they are?
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