Almost 500 Tamil asylum seekers are waiting in detention centres in British Columbia to hear from the Immigration and Refugee Board about whether or not they will be allowed to disperse into Canada and wait for the much more lengthy process of immigration hearings to start.
Meanwhile, in the rest of Canada, among the angry words, the finger pointing and accusations of everything from racism to treason, the news of the wayfaring MV Sun Sea has proved to be a litmus test for Canadian sentiment regarding immigration and refugee policies.
The argument that the Tamil refugees have managed to circumvent the proper methods of immigration into Canada does hold water. Instead of applying to seek asylum, as all other refugees are required to do, these people have simply showed up at the gates, expecting to be let in.
Although it accomplishes the short-term goal of escaping their home situation, arriving illegally in Canada does not entitle these Tamils to essentially queue-jump ahead of many hundreds and possibly thousands of other legitimate refugees who patiently await the outcome of their own hearings.
Many of these have been waiting for years to get a chance to be accepted into Canada and to carry on living productive lives; they may be fleeing persecution in their home countries, or just trying to provide for their families overseas.
To suggest that one group of refugees deserves special privileges is something that Canadians should be wary of making into a precedent.
Granted, some acknowledgements must be made in the case of the Tamils.
Of the 492 passengers aboard the MV Sun Sea, there are 63 women and several children. They are fleeing the fallout from the recently ended civil war in Sri Lanka, which left thousands of Tamils dead and saw both sides endure atrocities. Should Canada simply send these people home, they would almost certainly be subject to some sort of discrimination.
Those who would like to see the word “Tamil” become synonymous with “terrorist” argue out of sheer ignorance. The suggestion that these men, women and children, after having escaped the hostility at home, are looking to terrorize Canada is simply ridiculous.
Most of them just want to live a “normal” life.
Much like Australia, Canada had the choice to turn the ship around once it entered Canadian territorial waters.
But we didn’t.
Right or wrong, this is no longer the issue. Now that the Tamils have landed, we’re not simply going to pack them all back into their boat and send them home to be re-victimized.
The fact that these Tamils may have purposefully avoided the due process of asylum seeking in Canada and chosen instead to immigrate illegally, is now neither here nor there as they are currently sitting on Canadian soil, waiting for us to make up our minds.
All we can do now is carry on with the process as best we know how. Recently, the Globe and Mail reported that of the detained Tamils, only about 140 still need to complete their detention hearings.
This is progress.
After these hearings have been completed, the Immigration and Refugee Board can continue to work at verifying the identities of these people and weeding out those who are specifically undesirable. We have prepared for this; there are systems in place to deal with these sorts of situations.
What the Canadian government should be worrying about, however, is how policy comes back into play. The issue of a boatload of illegal immigrants landing on the coast of Canada is nothing new. It has happened before and will most likely happen again.
But the way this issue will be handled definitely says something about Canadian immigration and refugee policy. In the current international political climate, setting a precedent with cases such as this will have repercussions for Canadians in the years to come.
If most of these people are accepted into Canada, after having circumvented the legal means of doing so, we clearly have a problem with our policy.
Perhaps if the Conservatives are really interested in affecting positive change in the government while they are in power, they should be taking a close look at each issue as it arises.
Instead of poking our existing policy full of holes and looking to place blame, we should be looking at how we can make our policies serve our needs and the ever-changing needs of a smaller and smaller world.