With the constant babbling of the Greens and socialist left about the 'evils' of mandatory detention, I thought it quite interesting to read this piece in the normally socialist Toronto Sun, which promotes the virtues of mandatory detention. When even the true bastion of socialist crap in Canada's most left leaning city (Save for anything in Quebec) starts promoting mandatory detention, perhaps the Greens might do well to learn to, you know, read... Oh, and for Jula Gillard and her band of merry thieves, take note of the very last sentence.
Last week it was dozens of Hungarian Roma landing at Pearson airport and seeking refugee status, as reported by the Sun’s Tom Godfrey.
Next week, it will be them or another group from somewhere else claiming persecution.
The idea overworked border officials can make intelligent, snap judgments on whether these claimants pose a security risk, or whether they should be detained or released prior to hearings on their refugee applications, is absurd.
While Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and the Conservatives are taking steps to tighten the refugee determination process, the underlying problem remains.
As long as Canada selectively rather than systematically detains refugee claimants until the authenticity of their cases can be verified, our refugee mess will never be truly fixed.
From past experience, we know about one in four claims from these refugees claimants will be approved. (Most say they are victims of persecution by neo-Nazis.)
We also know Canadian taxpayers will pay tens of thousands of dollars supporting each claimant — genuine or otherwise — until a determination of their case can be made.
The problem is acute in Toronto, which receives a disproportionately high number of refugee claimants.
This puts a strain on our schools that are already short of English as a second language teachers, on our health care system and on many social services.
The issue is not the ethnicity or cultural background of the thousands of people making refugee claims every year.
It’s that our system is broken. Claims take years to determine, unfair to taxpayers and genuine refugees.
The Conservatives say their Balanced Refugee Reform Act will reduce the time for making refugee determinations from years to months.
We hope so.
To their credit and unlike the previous Liberal government, the Tories, at least, acknowledge the problem.
The problem being that over the years we’ve lost track of tens of thousands of failed refugee claimants who were ordered deported, some criminals and terrorists.
The solution is to detain all refugee applicants for up to a year until their claims can be verified, which the Conservatives only plan to do for those brought in by human smuggling rings.
That’s not enough. No genuine refugees will be ill-served by a humane detention system in which they will receive all the benefits they now do while waiting for their claims to be heard, including food, shelter, medical and dental benefits and education for their children.
These detentions could be subject to judicial review every few months to ensure no one falls through the cracks.
The difference is with systematic detention, Canada will no longer lose track of tens of thousands of refugee claimants by the time a decision is made on their case.
As important, we will no longer be seen as a soft touch by those seeking to jump the queue of our regular immigration process.
Keith Topolski is a former member of the NSW Young Liberal executive and is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Communications.
Too late for us here in Australia. We're already there.....the softest of touches and being taken for the biggest ride of all time by the economic migrants that hit Lotto when they get their permanent residency.
Posted by: CynicalGoatWA | November 2, 2011 at 04:39 PM