Veteran Canadian journalist criticizes Harper’s policy on refugees
Karl Nerenberg, a veteran journalist with over 25 years of
experience, came down sharply on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper’s policy towards refugees. In an article published on alternative
news site Rabble.ca on Tuesday, Nerenberg, giving examples of refugees
from Syria, Sri Lanka and Hungary, criticized the Harper government’s
approach to refugees for being ‘inconsistent’ and ‘stigmatizing’. Giving
the examples of the Tamils from the island, he opined Harper’s position
on holding the CHOGM in Sri Lanka was in contrast to his government’s
policy towards Tamil refugees. He further alleges that the new refugee
law in Canada gives the Ministry of Immigration “untrammeled power” to
pursue a discriminatory policy.
Excerpts from Karl Nerenberg’s article on Rabble.ca titled “Harper's
policy on vulnerable refugees is wildly inconsistent -- and cruel”
follows:
Karl Nerenberg
“Immigration Minister Jason Kenney
boasts that Canada is very generous when it comes to refugees -- or,
more precisely -- government-sponsored, resettled refugees.”
“The Immigration Ministry's website puts numbers on that generosity.”
“It says there are over 10 million refugees in the world (most in wretched refugee camps, which the web site fails to mention).”
“Of
these, about 100,000 are resettled each year. By 2013, the Immigration
Ministry says, "Canada will resettle up to 14,500 refugees and other
vulnerable persons a year"”
“This number, the Minister boasts, makes of Canada one of the leading refugee-resettlement countries in the world.”
“Canada is much less favourable, however, to refugees who arrive on these shores uninvited and unsponsored.”
“Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are a case in point.”
“Not
too long ago, the Prime Minister decided to boycott the Commonwealth
Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka because of the poor human
rights record of that country’s majority Sinhalese government.”
“Yet,
just a few years ago, when Tamils fleeing that same oppressive Sri
Lankan regime arrived in Canada, in two over-crowded boats, Harper's
ministers called them queue jumpers, bogus refugees and "irregular
arrivals." The Conservative government then locked them up.”
“The
Harper government vowed to do everything possible to stop any potential
influx of desperate people similar to the Sri Lankan Tamils who floated
in on those leaky boats.”
“Jason Kenney's new refugee reform
law, which the government introduced after the Tamil boat people came
here, places significant sanctions on these notionally "irregular"
arrivals.”
“Here again, the government is anything but consistent.”
“Definitely no little minds afflicted by those demon hobgoblins, here.”
“The Harper government has also moved to completely choke off any refugee flow from countries it deems "safe."”
“During
the minority government period, the opposition parties agreed to a
reform that would establish a so-called "safe" countries list.”
“That
provision would give government officials the power to deal with asylum
seekers from those designated safe countries much more expeditiously
than other refugees.”
“However, in the law passed during the
Harper minority, determination of which countries were actually safe was
to be made based on tangible and verifiable evidence together with the
analytic work of human rights experts.”
“Once he got a majority, Harper's Immigration Minister scrapped that carefully designed system, with its checks and balances.”
“Instead,
a new law now gives the Minister of Immigration the nearly untrammeled
power to determine the safe country list, arbitrarily.”
