The
Hispanic Ontario
Lawyers Association
_______________________________________________
The Hispanic Ontario Lawyers Association
390 Bay Street, Suite 802
Toronto, ON
M5G
2Y2
Hon. Jason Kenney
Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and
Multiculturalism
325 East Block,
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
November 10, 2010
We are writing to express our grave
concerns regarding Bill C-49
(“Preventing Human
Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act”) and in support of the Refugee Lawyers Association
and the Canadian Council for Refugees'
position on Bill C-49.
The Hispanic Ontario Lawyers Association
(HOLA) believes that Bill C-49 will do little to curb human smuggling and
protect the vulnerable, and will instead unfairly target and punish refugees
who come to Canada
in search of safety and protection.
Bill C-49 creates two classes of refugees
based upon their mode of arrival to Canada and punishes those refugees
“designated” to
have used “irregular means.” Not only is
this discriminatory, it ignores the merits of people's claims for protection.
The premise of Bill C-49 is that smuggling
will be curbed if smugglers' clients are punished when they get here. Therefore:
- Bill C-49 requires of mandatory detention without review for
one full year for “irregular arrivals” – including children, elderly,
pregnant women, and torture victims.
- Bill C-49 prohibits detained refugee claimants who are granted
refugee status from becoming permanent residents of Canada, and therefore, from being able to sponsor family
members to Canada
for five years . Given that processing for landing and sponsoring close
family members already takes 2 to 5 years, this means that families will
be separated for 5 to 10 years.
Yet this is contrary to Canadian and
binding international law. Our Charter
forbids arbitrary detention and discrimination. The Supreme Court found in Charkaoui in 2007
that even in security risk cases, there had to be immediate and meaningful
review of detention. Meanwhile, the UN
Convention on Refugees, which Canada
is a signatory to, forbids the punishment of refugees for using illegal means
to reach a safe haven and requires signatory countries to work to reunify
refugee families as quickly as possible.
Canada
already has a strong law against human smuggling – with a penalty of life
imprisonment. It is wrong to seek to
deter refugees from seeking refuge by punishing them for getting here through whatever
means were necessary.
The arrival of 492 refugee claimants on the
MVSunSee in August is only a “drop in the bucket,”
since Canada
processes 30,000 refugees and 240,000 immigrants every year. HOLA respectfully asks that your government
not overreact.
Please abandon Bill C-49 and continue to
deter smuggling without breaching Canada's Constitution and
international commitments.
Sincerely,
Ms. Sandra Lozano, B.A., M.A., LL.B.
President, Hispanic Ontario Lawyers Association