Criticisms have continued to trail the new immigration reforms introduced last week by Canada, with the Canadian Council for Refugees picking holes in the proposed bill.
The council said that some changes in the new reforms, Bill C-24, does not augur well as it would do more harm than good to the newcomers.
“The bill will make it more difficult for newcomers to become citizens,” the CCR said in an editorial opinion entitled: “Is Canada becoming less welcoming towards newcomers?”
In the editorial signed by its President, Loly Rico, the CCR also kicked against the $200 fees increase per adult for citizenship.
“More applicants will have to pass language and knowledge tests (everyone from 14 to 64 years of age, compared to 18-54 years now). People will have to wait longer: they will need four years’ residence in Canada, rather than three years,” the CCR, that is protecting the interests and rights of refugees and other vulnerable immigrants in Canada, added.
According to the council, the new measures would make the process of acquiring citizenship too long and stringent, even as it expressed opposition to strip citizens of their Canadian citizenships over act of treason or terrorism.
Said the council: “Most worryingly, the bill would allow citizenship to be stripped from dual citizens in cases of ‘treason’ or ‘terrorism’,” adding: “Creating separate rules for dual citizens is wrong because it creates a two-tier citizenship, with lesser rights for some citizens.”
Only last week while announcing the rules, the Immigration and Citizenship Minister, Chris Alexander, defended the new measures, saying that they were meant to strengthen the value of Canadian citizenship.
Alexander’s words: “The new measures will give us the power to regulate citizenship consultants and raise penalties for their involvement in fraud and misrepresentation.”
“We are doing this precisely because the vast majority of newcomers and Canadians are honest people who work hard and play by the rules,” Alexander, who is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Ajax-Pickering, explained. “To tolerate abuse would be to fail all Canadians. They know that widespread fraud diminishes the value of Canadian citizenship.”
But despite his explanation, the CCR rejected Alexander’s proposed bill, insisting that the reforms were not in the best interest of the new comers as it would hurt and create barriers to those who are fully ready to integrate in Canada, particularly after fleeing from their home countries.
The council maintained that it would be wrong for the government to use citizenship rules to punish people for wrongdoing.
It said it should rather resort to criminal system as the proper channel to deal with crimes.
“Citizenship is a fundamental status, not something that should be taken away for bad behaviour,” the CCR said, adding: “These new powers to strip citizenship on the basis of terrorism or treason are largely symbolic – it is unlikely many people would be affected. The message being sent however is very strong: it says that Canadians are not all equal, and that the loyalty of some citizens is in question.
“This negative message particularly affects certain Canadians, notably Muslims and Arabs, who have been unfairly and persistently associated with terrorism,” the council stressed.
“We should not think of citizenship as prize for those who most successfully struggle through a long process of adapting to Canada.”
“Offering citizenship is rather an important way that Canada assists newcomers in that struggle to adapt, by making them feel at home and removing the barriers faced by non-citizens. This helps newcomers to contribute to their full potential – which is to Canada’s benefit.”
The CCR, however, warned the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “If passed, I think the bill will make many of us who are dual citizens feel less safe, and that we are not ‘real’ citizens, because our citizenship could be taken away from us.
“I worry that all these barriers to becoming a citizen will undo one of the things Canada has been good at: making newcomers feel welcome and encouraging them to be full members of Canadian society.”
Acquiring Canadian citizenship with ease, the CCR said, would make permanent residents feel more comfortable and quickly forget their past unpleasant experiences.
“As long as you are a permanent resident, you don’t feel fully safe or completely settled. Once you become a citizen, you can close the old wounds and feel that you are now at home in Canada and that you can participate fully. Now you belong to a country that will defend you and look after your basic rights,” the council stated.
While referring to the Komagata Maru and the 75th anniversary of the SS St Louis, the council said: “We are reminded of Canada’s shameful history of racist immigration policies.
“Canada spent decades working to keep Asians and Jews out of Canada. And during the Second World War, Japanese Canadians were interned en masse, on the basis of suspicions of treason. Canada has come a long way since those days, but we live in the continuing shadow of that past.
“Our Citizenship Act needs to work to undo the racist policies of the past, bearing in mind that the majority of newcomers today are people who 75 or 100 years ago were deliberately excluded from Canada.
“The Act also needs to be designed to protect the equality of all citizens and to ensure that all will be treated fairly without discrimination.”
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