PhilPaine.com

Canada’s cur­rent, grotesque­ly incom­pe­tent Con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment has embar­rassed and degrad­ed us again, by impos­ing sud­den visa restric­tions on vis­i­tors from Mex­i­co and the Czech Repub­lic. They claim that cit­i­zens of those coun­tries are “clog­ging” our sys­tem with “pho­ny” refugee claims. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, the gov­ern­ments of both Mex­i­co and the Euro­pean Union have protest­ed this stu­pid action. In the case of the Czech Repub­lic, the fuss is about eth­nic Roma (Gyp­sies), who face vio­lence and social dis­crim­i­na­tion all over Europe, but espe­cial­ly in that coun­try. Their case may be dif­fi­cult to judge, since it does not quite fit our cus­tom­ary stan­dards for giv­ing polit­i­cal refugee sta­tus, but it is by no means “pho­ny”. I wrote to my Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, Bob Rae, who hap­pens to be the oppo­si­tion for­eign affairs critic.

Rae replied quickly:

From: RaeB@parl.gc.ca Date: Thu, July 16, 2009 10:51 am To: phil@philpaine.com:

Dear Phil,

Thank you for your email con­cern­ing the recent changes to visa reg­u­la­tions for cit­i­zens vis­it­ing Cana­da from the Czech Repub­lic. This most recent flip-flop by the Con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment is fur­ther evi­dence of their lack of a coher­ent and log­i­cal for­eign pol­i­cy. This is the sec­ond time in as many as two years that require­ments have changed for vis­i­tors from the Czech Repub­lic and comes short­ly after a seem­ing­ly suc­cess­ful state vis­it ear­li­er this year.

Fur­ther, our embassy in Prague is not equipped with a con­sular depart­ment and so Czech cit­i­zens inter­est­ed in vis­it­ing Cana­da are now forced to apply for a visa through their clos­est Cana­di­an visa office in Aus­tria. This move fur­ther mars the rep­u­ta­tion of our human­i­tar­i­an refugee sys­tem that this coun­try has been so proud of in the past.

The sud­den imple­men­ta­tion and absence of any warn­ings, or prepara­to­ry mea­sures high­lights this gov­ern­men­t’s lack of orga­ni­za­tion and com­plete dis­re­gard for Canada’s tourism indus­try. I assure you that I was not con­sult­ed before this deci­sion was made, and received no warn­ing of its immi­nent implementation.

Sin­cere­ly,
Hon Bob Rae
MP Toron­to Centre
Lib­er­al For­eign Affairs Critic

I, in turn, replied:

From: phil@philpaine.com Date: Thu, July 16, 2009 10:26 pm To: RaeB@parl.gc.ca

Dear Mr. Rae,

The Roma face real oppres­sion in Czech Repub­lic. While, on paper, the coun­try has ade­quate pro­tec­tions of human rights, in prac­tice the police stand idly by while neo-Nazi thugs reg­u­lar­ly beat, or even mur­der Roma. The Roma con­sti­tute an under­class in that coun­try, liv­ing on the mar­gins, and, yes, often involved in crim­i­nal activ­i­ty. Con­trary to the pop­u­lar image, the major­i­ty of Czech Roma are no longer wan­der­ing or pur­su­ing the tra­di­tion­al Roma lifestyle. Human Rights Watch report­ed that since 1989, “Czech author­i­ties have failed to ade­quate­ly pro­tect Roma from the ever-increas­ing dan­ger of racist attacks. When attacks do occur, Roma are often denied equal treat­ment before the law, a direct vio­la­tion of both Czech and inter­na­tion­al law”. There are peo­ple in Czech Repub­lic who work to improve this sit­u­a­tion, but it has grown steadi­ly worse in recent years. Few Roma have the socio-eco­nom­ic back­ground to meet Canada’s immi­gra­tion point sys­tem. Almost every­where in Europe, the Roma are regard­ed with super­sti­tious fear, which is in turn fueled by the fact that there are bands of Roma work­ing as pick-pock­ets in most major Euro­pean cities, so emi­gra­tion to oth­er parts of Europe is usu­al­ly a dead-end for law-abid­ing Roma who wish to start a new life.

A tele­vi­sion doc­u­men­tary, aired in Czech Repub­lic, which inter­viewed some Roma in Cana­da and showed them liv­ing a nor­mal, un-per­se­cut­ed life was the trig­ger of most of the refugee claims for asy­lum here. Iron­i­cal­ly, the tra­di­tion­al lifestyle is alive and kick­ing in Cana­da. Few Cana­di­ans know that the Roma have been here for cen­turies, and that many thou­sands live in this coun­try, with­out draw­ing any par­tic­u­lar notice, or caus­ing any social prob­lems. Every year, tra­di­tion­al Roma make a pil­grim­age to Ste. Anne de Beaupré, Que­bec, to wor­ship at the church of their patron saint. The Roma flee­ing from the Czech Repub­lic, how­ev­er, would have only mar­gin­al con­nec­tions with these tra­di­tion­al Roma. They have long been “seden­tary”.

It is clear that we des­per­ate­ly need to revamp our immi­gra­tion & refugee poli­cies into some­thing ratio­nal and moral­ly accept­able. Roma refugee claimants can’t legit­i­mate­ly claim that they are in immi­nent dan­ger at the hands of the Czech State (i.e., they are not strict­ly speak­ing polit­i­cal refugees), in the way that polit­i­cal refugees from Bur­ma are. How­ev­er, they have plen­ty of rea­son to come to Cana­da if they want their chil­dren to live a life of basic human dig­ni­ty. That, in fact, is the kind of immi­grant that built this coun­try — poor peo­ple who fled chron­ic pover­ty, pogroms, and low social sta­tus in the old world to build a decent life in the new. Our immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy now favours the rich and edu­cat­ed. The Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty under Bri­an Mul­roney was par­tic­u­lar­ly keen on turn­ing Cana­di­an cit­i­zen­ship into some­thing sold for hard cash to the high­est bid­der. We need to return to our roots.

Phil Paine, Toronto