http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/19/15080536.html (http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/19/15080536.html)
By BRIAN LILLEY, Parliamentary Bureau\
NOTE.......(THIS SHIP WAS FIRST TURNED AWAY BY AUSTRALLIA)
OTTAWA - Send them home and use the Navy if necessary is the message coming from a new poll on the Tamil boat people issue.
By a margin of five to one, Canadians say the government should reject the almost 500 would-be refugees from Sri Lanka who arrived last week.
The Leger Marketing poll of 1,500 people, released exclusively to QMI Agency, was conducted from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4 as the ship travelled towards the British Columbia coast.
Asked which statement best described their own opinion on what should be done with the ship, which may include members of the banned Tamil Tiger terrorist group, 60% agreed with the statement: "They should be turned away - the boat should be escorted back to Sri Lanka by the Canadian Navy."
Just 17% agreed with the statement: "They should be accepted into Canada as political refugees."
A significant number, 20%, said they did not know which answer to choose and 4% did not answer.
Alberta ranked highest with 74% of respondents there saying send the boat back and just 11% saying let them stay, while Quebec was the second highest with 64% opting to send the boat back and 15% saying the passengers should stay.
"That's a very high number," said Leger pollster David Scholz.
Scholz said the number is likely high for a number of factors, including concerns about who arrived on the boat, such as possible terrorists, and whether other boats will follow.
"There is that worry that this is potentially people coming in, not just jumping the queue, but coming in and falsely representing where they are from," said Scholz. "We don't often hear about other refugee claims that are done on an individual or family basis, but when we see lots of them at the same time we tend to get a little nervous."
Martin Collacott was Canada's highest-ranking diplomat in Sri Lanka during the period when the civil war launched by the Tamil Tigers started in the early 1980s. Collacott says we can't just turn the boat back.
"We need to follow the process that takes the ones that are legitimate refugees and return the others," said Collacott.
How many are legitimate refugees is up for debate said Collacott, who noted that the ship, the MV Sun Sea, didn't come directly from Sri Lanka, but from Thailand where the passengers were safe from any possible persecution from the Sri Lankan government.
As for what he takes away from the fact that the majority of Canadians don't want the government to let the would-be refugees stay, Collacott pins the blame on a battered immigration system.
"I think it shows Canadians feel they are being taken advantage of," said Collacott.
The Canadian Tamil Congress believes the poll results are a reflection of feelings towards the immigration system, not Tamils themselves.
"I think there is a growing frustration," said spokesperson Manjula Selvarajah.
Still Selvarajah puts some of the blame on government rhetoric that has warned about possible criminal or terrorist connections on the boat.
"People may be reacting to certain words such as queue jumpers and human
smugglers," said Selvarajah. "If people understood the immigration and refugee system and the process in place, they may have a bit more faith in the system."
Pollster Scholz told QMI Agency the results cannot conclude whether race or ethnicity are factors in the reaction Canadians are having to the boat's arrival.
The poll of 1,500 adult Canadians was taken online between Aug. 2 and Aug. 4. A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Ah well, looks like we can't sing that old Johnny Rebel song anymore, "Ship those nigger North." You Canadians are so racist now, we'll have to stick to "Ship those Niggers back." 8)
Don't worry, one day the JOG will change and the sun will rise. ;)
Pontifex Cambeul.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/21/15098766.html (http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/21/15098766.html)
Refugees go home for holidays
By Brian Lilley, Parliamentary Bureau
- A secret government survey reveals the majority of successful Tamil refugees travel back to Sri Lanka, raising questions about the legitimacy of their refugee status.
To become a refugee, a claimant must prove they are in danger of torture, there is a risk to their life or meet other criteria showing they will face persecution in their home country. Yet this did not stop over 70% of successful Tamil refugee claimants surveyed from returning to Sri Lanka for vacations, business or to sponsor family members.
"I think it's been fairly common knowledge, that after asylum seekers get status they go back," said James Bissett a former head of Immigration Canada. "Certainly after they get landed immigrant status they go back."
Bissett said such abuse should not happen but is all too common in a system he says is known to be generous, open and easy to play. "The name of the game is to get into Canada," said Bissett. "It's Hotel California, everyone checks in but they never leave."
Another former immigration official told QMI Agency that some refugee claimants might actually be risking life and limb to rush back and visit dying relatives but others simply lied about ever being a refugee.
Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said he's not surprised to hear about people traveling back to the country they fled. Kurland told QMI he's had refugee clients that have landed in jail after going back to their home country.
He warns there is a difference between people who go back many years after their claim, such as after a change in government and those who go back quickly.
"It's a world of difference," said Kurland.
He adds that more data is crucial and that if people who recently claimed torture or death if returned to their homeland are the ones doing the travelling, then the refugee status can be revoked.
"They can reopen the hearing and say, 'You had a fear of persecution, where is the persecution?'"
While government officials refused to release the controversial survey they did confirm the top-line figures to QMI Agency. The survey of Sri Lankan nationals was conducted in early August. A total of 50 people were surveyed, 31 of them had successfully obtained refugee status and 22 had returned to Sri Lanka. The CBSA refuses to release further information and will not say if an expanded study will be conducted to examine the full nature of the problem.