179
Canada will cancel thousands of refugee claims under new retroactive law (www.thestar.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
56 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Archive: [ https://archive.is/pPMwS ]

“This (law) is the most significant rollback of refugee rights in Canada in over a decade,” said Adam Sadinsky of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. “It’s disappointing that Canada has joined other countries in a race to the bottom in terms of protection of rights for migrants and vulnerable people.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 16 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Gee if only there was a way to tell who is seeking asylum for good reasons and who isn't. Maybe some kind of process where you can apply and then the government can examine the application on its merits and make a decision? Oh wait.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Did you even read the article? There is a process and the changes outlined in the article are a change to the process to make it less game-able by economic migrants posing as refugees. Namely

    anyone who first arrived in Canada after June 24, 2020, will not be allowed to make a refugee claim after one year

    Which makes a lot of sense, because it impacts approximately 0 genuine refugees (they either get refugee visas before arrival or tend to apply as soon as they arrive) and cuts out lots of economic migrants posing as refugees (who tend to arrive on a temporary work permit or student visa and want to extend their stay).

    The article is NOT about abolishing the right to apply for asylum.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

    It denies that right to thousands of people who already legally made a claim. Their human right to seek asylum is being denied.

    How would you like it if you had taken all the legal steps to apply for asylum and then a government comes and retroactively decided that, "no, your application never even happened, fuck you"?

    And then, let's be clear. Even if 80% (a percentage I pulled out of my ass to look "high", it could well be much less than that) of the 19,000 applications that are likely to be impacted were going to be rejected anyway, that means that 20% of them are legitimate cases. That would be 3800 people who are genuine refugees for whom Canada will just trample over their legitimate right to asylum. The MS St Louis that Canada famously forbade from unloading Jewish refugees fleeing from the fucking Holocaust had about 900 passengers, about 200 of whom ended up in gas chambers. Those 900 people are a stain in Canada's history. And now we are just cancelling the applications, without any recourse, of many times over their number. We should have learned the lesson of MS St Louis.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] -1 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    Holocaust story you shared is sad but has nothing to do with this specific change. I find it really disturbing that you cheapen the unique suffering of holocaust victims to score points here. Holocaust victims, or indeed anyone genuinely needing asylum, would not have waited over a year to apply.

    There has to be a cutoff for any change. I think there is a genuine argument to be made from a rule of law perspective that no law should have retroactive effect. However, considering your posts in this thread I have a feeling you wouldn't be satisfied with making this law not retroactive anyway.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •