For Immediate Release
Toronto, January 30, 2002 — As part of the public consultations surrounding the proposed regulations to the Immigration and Refugee Act, David Matas, Senior Legal Counsel to B’nai Brith Canada, will appear before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on January 31, 2002 at 9:00 am.
Matas will present B’nai Brith Canada’s written submission, which emphasizes that the regulations must support basic entitlements such as the right of interview for every application, the right to counsel, reconsideration of refusals to process claims abroad, access to files and entitlement to be advised of rights before examination begins. The regulations should also allow protected persons to include in their application all family members, the B’nai Brith Canada brief contends.
Rochelle Wilner, National President of B’nai Brith Canada, highlighted several key issues in Matas’ brief: “We believe that the process of risk determination abroad must reflect Canadian standards of fairness, and that all standards for individuals who apply here must also be valid for those applying from abroad. Furthermore, protected persons should not have to meet the excessive criterion demand, which could make bona fide refugees inadmissible in cases where they might cause an excessive burden on our health system. The criterion of ability to establish economically should also be dropped from the regulations. It is morally wrong to reject a valid application on such grounds.”
Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President, seconded Matas’ concern regarding the absence of a definition of terrorism in the regulations. “We want protections for refugees to be strengthened, but we also need to be vigilant in dealing with bogus claimants. A definition of terrorism already exists in the Anti-Terrorism Act and should be used in the regulations that govern the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act as well, in order to ensure uniformity of application. If a suspicious claimant is unearthed, then investigation should follow leading, where appropriate, to prosecution, conviction and sentencing. An order to move on would simply allow for justice to be circumvented. We must not allow Canada to become a haven for terrorists.”
David Matas, the author of the submission, noted that there are thousands of individuals in Canada who have been recognized as refugees, with the de facto acceptance of identity that that implies — and yet they cannot become landed immigrants because they do not have the necessary identity papers to acquire passports. “Canadian authorities have turned the Refugee Convention on its head”, he said. “Instead of issuing identity papers to those without valid travel documents, Canadian authorities insist that refugees have valid travel documents before they will issue the refugees with identity papers. This practice is more than just a violation of the Refugee Convention. It is a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
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For further comment, call David Matas at (204) 944-1831
For a copy of the B'nai Brith Canada Submission call (416) 622-6224 ext. 145
B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the community’s foremost advocacy and volunteer organization.
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