The Editorial below was published by the Toronto Star. I find it interesting that the Star, typically a very "liberal" newspaper aligned with the "victim" point of view in many of its stories, and usually very critical of the Conservative government immigration and refugee policies, has published this Editorial. Is it perhaps that it senses that public opinion is turning and that Canadians are tired of a dysfunctional refugee system that rewards the bogus and crafty, but penalizes the real refugees who can not afford to buy fake documents to travel and procure the services of smugglers? The time for reform is long overdue.
TheStar.com Opinion Unbearable lightness of refugee policy
Unbearable lightness of refugee policy
July 21, 2009
Martin Regg Cohn
Imagine you are a Roma.People in your Czech homeland call you Gypsy and treat you like a second-class citizen. Your friends and family have claimed asylum in Canada and are still enjoying the good life here years later.
You'd be crazy not to join them.
And Canada would be crazy to let you get away with it. That's why Ottawa decided this month to reimpose a visa requirement on the Czech Republic and Mexico – two relatively democratic countries that have emerged as our biggest sources of refugee claimants.No one doubts that Romas face discrimination, just as natives and visible minorities sometimes do in Canada. But that doesn't make them refugees under the UN Convention – defined as having a well-founded fear of persecution.The Czech government doesn't persecute Romas the way Iran's theocracy torments Baha'i believers. Czech passports allow the Roma to live and work in any European Union country, so why treat Canada as a refuge of first resort?As for the thousands of Mexican migrants flocking here (many courtesy of human smugglers), 90 per cent of them are rejected. Adding to the absurdity, Mexico has traditionally been a destination for Latin Americans seeking political asylum; so how did it go from haven to hell for refugees?Ottawa's visa rules have been condemned as a sledgehammer approach – for smashing the travel plans of legitimate visitors, and bruising our diplomatic relations with friendly nations. But when your tool box is empty, a sledgehammer may be the only option.Few of the critics – opposition politicians, refugee advocates or immigration lawyers with a stake in the system – have proffered any useful policy tools. True, the Conservative government has been slow to fill vacancies on the Immigration and Refugee Board, but similar refugee spikes have plagued the system for years under the Liberals, creating today's backlog.The best, bluntest reality check came earlier this year in Prague, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited his Czech counterpart, Mirek Topolanek, and the Roma outflow came up:"Canada has a very soft asylum procedure," Topolanek retorted to reporters. "It is very easy to get an asylum in Canada and for that reason it is being targeted by individuals who are seeking economic, rather than any other asylum."He offered some free advice: "We have been asking Canada to list us as countries of safe origin."Some took offence at Topolanek's finger-wagging, but the fault lies with us.Australia long ago limited the grounds for judicial appeals that are now clogging Canada's courts. The U.K. has recently streamlined its system by giving more authority to immigration officers to fast-track a case. In Canada, refugee reform is politically unpalatable.When you waste time and resources processing refugee claims from (admittedly imperfect) democracies like Israel, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the U.S., you undermine confidence at home and encourage confidence-artists abroad. Bogus claimants impose a huge expense on the taxpayer and bog down the process – burdening legitimate refugees whose cases typically take 18 months.There is an even bigger potential cost: We risk undermining support for the refugee system. Public opinion polls show that growing dissatisfaction with our refugee system cannot be wished away.Consider how refugees became a volatile election issue in Australia a few years ago when human smugglers sent waves of boat people toward its shores: Politicians lapsed into populism as the public panicked; Australia tied itself up in knots for years.On refugee matters, you dare not wear blinkers. The more inconsistent Canada's rules become – and the more we allow refugee lawyers to clog our court system with endless appeals – the more we invite abuse by economic migrants and human smugglers gaming the system.How will Canada cope when a true refugee crisis arises down the road – say, an exodus of millions from North Korea, or a cry for help from the more than 300,000 Tamils being detained in Sri Lanka? What about the 10 million legitimate refugees in UN camps around the world who face a decade-long wait for resettlement?Our generous and forgiving refugee policy, like our defence policy, sounds noble but is primarily a product of our geography. Just as we live under the American defence umbrella, so too we rely on the U.S. border to buffer us from Mexico's illegal aliens; similarly, we are far removed from the waves of boat people landing on Australia's shores. Long distances and high airfares have long protected us from our short-term planning horizon.Every now and then, the real world catches up with us.
Martin Regg Cohn is the Star's deputy editorial page editor. His weekly column will return in September.
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