Shortly after we moved to Halifax we visited Pier 21, the place where tens of thousands of immigrants to Canada landed from various countries in Europe and beyond. It had special importance for us because that is where my wife Ruth's mother arrived in Canada as a war bride.
As we explored the exhibits it was heart warming to see that church groups including the Salvation Army, the Roman Catholic church, and our United Church had been involved in welcoming newcomers. Of course the majority came in ships that were anticipated and entered Canadian waters legally, although not all.
Earlier this week a ship with nearly 500 Tamils from Sri Lanka was intercepted by Canadian authorities and they are now being processed in Vancouver. There is concern that some of them may be part of the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist organization, and others may be involved in human trafficking. All of them have "jumped the queue" in terms of immigration.
I'm not impressed by those who try to enter Canada outside the law, because so manynothers are attempting to follow proper channels and procedures. I don't want people coming here who are bringing political baggage which might lead to conflict in Canada or back in their homelands. At the same time I understand why desperate people would do anything to get into this wonderful country.
How have you felt about this arrival? Does the Christian call to hospitality extend to immigrants, even those who are here illegally?Are we not open enough to immigrants and refugees in Canada, or too liberal?
6 comments:
A sticky issue, but to me, as long as you're following protocol, then the system should work the way it should for both immigrants and established Canadians.
Followed the rules? C'mon in.
I knew this topic would come up! Well, now we hear there may be other boats on their way here. Do we just accept everyone?
The problem is that determining whether people are genuine refugees can take a lot of time. Meanwhile, these hundreds are accessing free medical and dental services. Last I heard, the majority of Canadians are concerned about our health care system and its resources.
I just don't want Canada to be the sucker nation of the world.
Not only is there a concern that these some of these people may be Tamil Tigers, but there is also a concern that there is TB on board. Our healthcare resources are stretched beyond capacity already. There are some strains of TB in the world that are medication resistant and they are appearing in immigrant populations. With proper screening, the spread of these kinds of TB can be prevented by isolating the carriers upon arrival. If they don't go through the proper screening, the risk to our country is great. I agree that there are many people who go through the proper channels and should be allowed into the country, but I think our government needs to be tougher on the illegal immigrants.
We need to be much more open to refugees. Canada doesn't have that great a record on accepting people. We live in a vast country with so much, it is only right we welcome and help other people.
Thanks for all these comments. I agree that Canada can do more, and I want us to do more. I still feel whenever possible the best way to be effective is through established protocols. Even with the so-called Boat People from Vietnam there was structure.
I think too of the situation in Haiti where the distribution of aid must happen in an orderly fashion even though many are hungry. Anything else would be chaos. Even compassion needs form.
What country has a better record for treatment of refugees?
We have everybody from everywhere. We have been and continue to be generous to refugees, but they need to follow the rules. The rules need to be enforced to prevent us from being a terrorist launching pad into the U.S.
If our borders were wide open it would be like nuke missels in Cuba all over again.
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