Just in time for Refugee Rights Day

April 4 is Refugee Rights Day in Canada, when we commemorate the declaration by the Supreme Court in 1985 that the Charter of Rights of Freedoms is meant to protect the rights to liberty, personal security and justice of everyone in Canada, including refugees. This means that all refugee claimants are entitled to an oral hearing to make their case.

This year, Refugee Rights Day comes less than a week after Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announces major changes to Canada’s refugee and asylum system. In response to the rising number of asylum claims and the long waiting list (up to 19 months for the first hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB)) Kenney has made changes aimed at tackling the backlog of refugee claims.

These changes include more public servant involvement in the IRB and quick decision making. If claims are denied, most applicants will be able to appeal to a new division, the Refugee Appeal Division. If claims are denied by this body, applicants will have the opportunity to appeal to the Federal Court.

But these procedures will not be followed for all applicants. As Minister Kenney announced, the changes in the system includes a list of so-called “safe countries.” This list was not released right away, but Minister Kenney claims such a list will include countries with good human rights and democratic records.

Applicants from these countries will be fast-tracked and not eligible for the Refugee Appeal Division if claims are denied (they have to appeal directly to the Federal Court), in an attempt to crack down on the problem of false refugee claimants. These occur, as Minister Kenney argues, when people who are not actually refugees or in need of protection file a claim in order to speed up the process of immigrating to Canada.

False claims are a real concern, as is the daunting backlog of applicants, but is the categorization of refugee applicants by country a viable solution? What about the Supreme Court decision which emphasizes equal treatment?

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, worries about refugee systems that categorize applicants by country. He is afraid that legitimate applicants may be denied because their country of origin has been deemed safe. But persecution can and does occur even in political democracies. As quoted in the Globe and Mail, Guterres says “There are certain areas where, even if you live in a ... political democracy, you have still a certain number of important grounds for a well-founded fear of persecution to be real.” Also, as it states very clearly in the founding documents of the UNHCR, refugee claims are based on individuals, not countries.

In light of these concerns, which countries will appear on this list? In an interview with Kathleen Petty on Ottawa Morning on March 31, Kenney was talking about Western European countries, but also kept referring to Chile, Costa Rica and other countries. He completely avoided questions around Mexico. Given the visa regulations around Mexico in 2009, there is a real possibility that it will make the list, despite the ongoing drug-related violence in the northern regions of the country.

Gloria Nafziger from Amnesty International, in a CBC Newsworld interview, had another solution. Invest the resources designated for the new system into the old system, which would cut wait times and keep the process equal for all applicants.