Scarborough MPs hold differing views on refugee bill
Jun 05, 2012NDP's Sitsabiesan calls Bill C-31 'flawed'
New federal legislation on refugees contains "dangerous measures" that will "particularly impact" residents of Scarborough, a local New Democratic MP says.
Rathika Sitsabaiesan said the Conservative government's Bill C-31 will unfairly force refugees to wait five years before they can become permanent residents and reunite with their families.
The "flawed" bill, which is headed back to the House of Commons for a third and final reading, would also let Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on his own choose the list of "safe" third countries to which refugee claimants can be returned without appeal, she said.
"It's just not right to have so much power in the hands of one person," said Sitsabaiesan, who held a press conference recently to denounce C-31 at her constituency office in the riding of Scarborough-Rouge River.
With her were representatives from the Canadian Council for Refugees, which fears a "safe-country" designation for Hungary could mean the return of Roma claimants there, and from the Canadian Tamil Congress, concerned Tamil asylum seekers could be returned to Sri Lanka.
Sitsabaiesan said several Roma claimants live in Scarborough's West Hill area and suggested they could face persecution and violence if they are sent back to Hungary. Scarborough is also home to many of the hundreds of Tamils who arrived in Canada by sea with the MV Sun Sea or MV Ocean Lady and whose refugee status claims are undecided, she said.
None of the asylum-seekers were at the press conference, the MP said.
"They are too scared to come out with their stories now."
Another Scarborough MP, however, expressed different views on the bill during May when it was reviewed by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
Roxanne James, a Conservative, said designating certain countries "safe" is "not something new on the world stage" and can speed up processing of claimants from those countries.
Hungary is part of the European Union, the Scarborough Centre MP told the committee on May 7.
"People there have 26 other countries they can choose before coming to Canada," said James. "If you were being persecuted in your country, would you not flee to the most convenient, quickest, safest place to go, or would you choose Canada simply because it's easy money?"
James said reading that the Sun Sea asylum seekers in 2010 paid human smugglers large sums in order to "evade" Canada's passport and visa requirements "actually made my blood boil."
Sitsabaiesan accused members of the Conservative-dominated committee of rejecting concerns about C-31 and New Democrat amendments out of "blind pride," but said she hopes a public outcry will cause the government to reconsider.
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