In Canada, a refugee is defined as "a person who has had to flee his or her country because of a well-founded fear of persecution and has been given protection by the Government of Canada."
In Canada, professional and trained bureaucrats investigate all 30,000-plus refugee claims made each year against a set of criteria that is designed to weed out frauds, cheats and criminals. Of those, about 25,000 refugee claims are accepted annually.
In Canada, a refugee can make an Inland Claim by fleeing directly to Canada and claiming refugee status here, or a refugee may be chosen from a refugee camp or temporary country of refuge by the Canadian government.
According to the Canadian government's website, it's a system intended "to find comprehensive solutions for protracted refugee situations and supporting efforts to help emerging democracies look for ways to solve many of the problems that create refugee populations in the first place."
And it works.
Unfortunately, many Canadians like to wear the Maple Leaf on their back packs, paste on their shiny smiles and boast about our country's humanitarian and global peace efforts (the "nice" factor), yet when it comes to acting on those principles by, say, letting the refugee system evaluate 500 claims from a boat of Tamils, the shine seems to rub off.
A recent survey indicated that only 35 per cent of Canadians thought that the Tamil refugees should be accepted and processed as any other refugee. Fully 48 per cent of Canadians favoured deporting them withoutdue process.
It's been a bit of a historical trend in Canada to refuse or hinder entry to those perceived as "undesirable."
In 1885, it was the Chinese Head Tax. In 1914, 387 Indian immigrants arriving on the Komagata Maru were refused entry to Canada.
In 1939, 907 Jews escaping Nazi Germany aboard the SS St. Louis were refused entry into Canada and returned to Germany where many perished in the Death Camps.
Shortly after that, Canadians of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from their properties, separated from their families and sent to internment camps.
Fortunately, things improved after the Second World War.
It may be indiscreet of me to say, but I think racism plays a role in the attitude that seems to pervade the, "Let's send 'em back" crowd.
But can you blame people when our "leaders" paint these people as terrorists and criminals? It's despicable that Vic Toews and Stephen Harper are fear mongering to bolster their own political fortunes.
A real leader would ask the population to let the bureaucrats do their job, and if these people are deemed to be refugees, that we welcome them into our communities. But there are no votes in that.
Harper's constituents seem to want bluster about law and order and keeping the peace, not rational and calm support of Canadian law
In Canada, we think of ourselves as fair and compassionate.
In the Conservative worldview, everyone who not "us" is one of "them" and you can't trust them, especially if they're a different colour.
