Refugee Moratorium

Looks like it's just about time for Canada to call a break from its current system of refugee determination, since it has become unwieldy, unpredictable, unfair, unworkable, overall fairly dysfunctional. We've an incredible backlog, for one thing, and insufficiently staffing to handle refugee claims. Just over twenty years ago 3,500 people claimed refugee status, and there was a backlog of 1,400 cases awaiting review. Now, 30,000 claims are made annually, resulting in a backlog of over 55,000 claims pending review.

It's more than obvious that the system isn't working, is not reliable, and that Canada, moreover - aside from admitting refugee seekers that don't really qualify and indeed pose a potential risk to the country - is being held hostage to the demands of immigration specialists who make a handsome living off the system. They, along with purported refugee humanitarian groups within the country present as a formidable force for lobbying timid politicians, fearful of being labelled anti-immigrant in a country comprised of immigrants.

This country absorbs roughly a quarter-million immigrants on an annual basis. Handily outdistancing all other countries in the developed world. There are costs associated with that kind of absorption, along with the benefits. The costs are more immediate; the benefits come along in the future. Among concerns rarely considered is the burdens that cities take on in absorbing so many new residents. And in an era where the environment is of such great concern, new residents strain already existing systems meant to ameliorate environment degradation.

This pluralist society has never done anything much but welcome immigrants from all areas of the sphere; exotic, faraway and often violence-prone hot-spots. Since the entire population with the exception of our aboriginal populations are of immigrant stock, it doesn't do for a minister of immigration to upset too many apple-carts. Immigration lawyers along with the various lobby groups representing ethnic, political, religious interests have a powerful incentive to keep things bubbling along without change.

Anyone claiming refugee status in this country has access to the Immigration Review Board for a fair hearing of their claim. Because of the backlog it's assured that the refugee claimant is given a safe haven for as long as it takes to schedule his hearing. In the interim the claimant is handsomely set up with social assistance, health care, free legal advice and can seek employment in the country. Moreover, if the claimant gives birth while awaiting determination, that child obtains instant Canadian citizenship.

Where previously hearings at the IRB were conducted by two IRB members and a civil servant knowledgeable about legal proceedings under the Immigration Act, currently proceedings can be conducted by one member only who may be biased for various reasons to accept claims that might be turned down if considered by two hearing the case. And then there's the documentation that must be worked up to support a negative decision to stand up to scrutiny in an appeal.

Decisions can be appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal, and further to the Supreme Court. A savvy lawyer is able to put things on ice for a prolonged period of time, during which the claimant can ask for ministerial humanitarian intervention, to make for an extended process that can take over fifteen years to reach a conclusion. There is no other refugee determination system elsewhere that offers more protection to the claimant than Canada's.

The umbrella refugee lobby group, Canadian Council for Refugees, stands in strident opposition to any alterations in the current system. In their pursuit, they have named and shamed Canada, representing it as racist, rather than the proudly pluralistic society that it is. At the Durban UN Conference Against Racism a paper was presented where the CCR painted Canada's refugee agenda as being tainted, by the claim that "racism and discrimination are part of the Canadian reality".

That must explain why so many refugees clamour to be admitted to Canada, eager to experience the rigours of living in a racist society, as they attempt to flee the misery of living in their own countries many of which are dictatorships, embroiled in civil strife, where minority rights are non-existent and economic constraints the order of their day. In fact, Canada's kid-gloves routine with respect to refugee claimants, its generosity and openness is well known and exploited.

The system is groaning under the weight of its dysfunction, long due for an overhaul that reaches deep into its fundamentals. If the political will can be found, with politicians of all parties willing to lend their lawmaking credentials to this critical matter that shapes the future of Canadian society we'll all be better off for it.