Toronto / November 2024 - The headline of a story in a national mainstream newspaper caught my attention as an email notice flashed across the computer screen. An exaggeration I thought, given the person that the headline quote was attributed to. To confirm my suspicion, I turned my attention away from the work that I was doing to read the article. And yes, there it was. No exaggeration. The UN Secretary General, visiting Canada had confirmed to media and others that he understood and supported (implied) our government’s decision to significantly reduced the number of refugees to be accepted this year and next.
Having the head of the world’s premier body responsible for the wellbeing of the most harmed among us, support the reduction in humanitarian numbers by Canada- or any other country for that matter, was a shock to the system. Of course he used the same ‘commonsense’ arguments made by the Minister of Immigration and the Prime Minister. We need to pause our support of those who are displaced, bombed out of homes and country, fleeing for their lives until such time that we can correct the monumental mistake we made over thirty years ago when we decided that governments needed to get out of the business of building housing/homes and leave it to private sector. That last part of abdicating their responsibilities of ensuring adequate, affordable housing for all, isn’t said out loud. Instead, what we have been hearing is that international students, refugees, migrant workers, the people who deliver our food, pick and grow our food, care for our elderly and our children, pack our meats and catch our fish, while subsidizing our postsecondary sector, are truly the cause of this crisis of housing affordability and adequacy. Please….
I’m sometimes surprised by the deep levels of my rose-tinted glasses. My disappointment in the political stance taken by the one person I think must and should always speak up for safe refuge for all in need, bowed to political expediency to cater to those leading the fraying of the national consensus on immigration. C’est dommage!
Given this decision to shirk its international responsibilities for refugees and displaced persons, one would expect the government to look internally to see how they could make right and assist the stabilization of the immigration program they’ve been talking about. After all, people who have been living in the country for many years are working (including as entrepreneurs), and contributing to their communities and the provincial and national coffers. They are made vulnerable because of a lack of legal immigration status. This is a group of people who are often exploited by employers and landlords once their non-status become known. A regularization program as a solution to our labour market shortages and to cleaning up the immigration program (if you adhere to the idea that the program is in disarray) could have gone a long way to providing a sense of permanence and safety to a large number of people. Instead, the Minister announced that they will not be moving forward with a broad regularization program. Maybe a small program – basically continuing the construction trades program that the Canadian Labour Congress has been facilitating on behalf of the federal government. What a lost opportunity. Decades of advocacy especially in the last three years gone to naught. Again the excuse that ‘the Canadian consensus on immigration has fallen apart.
I understand the pressures on our various systems as we’ve experienced unprecedented population growth in the past four years, while at the same time our economy has been sluggish due to the need to recover from a global pandemic and a number of wars around the globe. Climate change is also contributing to the social and economic unease we are all experiencing. But I cannot in all good conscience support a direction that will say no to the stranger in need at the door.
What a mind-f-k today has been as I write this. Eight years ago, around this same time of year, our current PM said to those in fear of deportation from the USA, our doors are open, you are welcome here. Today, crickets. The same threats of deportation of primarily racialized people from the geopolitical south was made during the election campaign of the incoming US president. This time around, Canada has firmly shut its doors. I guess if we must reach for a silver-lining in all of this doom and gloom, it is that with the extension of the Safe Third Country Agreement with the USA, Canada agreed to resettle up to fourteen thousand persons coming through the US southern border. A glimmer of hope for a few.
As Canadians of good conscience as our own federal political campaign is gearing up (unofficially) we must ensure that we are raising the issues of refugee protection, of regularization of status, of ongoing support for the public good, with all political parties and individuals seeking our vote. We cannot afford to be complacent. We are bearing witness to decades of good public policy being rolled back. We are hearing the calls for a curbing of personal rights and civil liberties here at home and across the globe. We must ask the question of those who would want to politically lead us: What is your vision of a compassionate and welcoming Canada?
“This is precisely the time when artists (and I would add activists and healers) go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, write, we do language (and actions), That is how civilizations heal.”
Toni Morrison
In Solidarity
dd