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Showing posts from November, 2010

Some thoughts on Bill C-49

Filipiniana News – November 2010 RHYME & REASON   This year is turning out to be an extremely busy one for the government’s immigration portfolio. After numerous changes to the immigration law, regulations and implementing guidelines, here comes Bill, C-49, also known as the “ Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act ”, which is being presented by the government as a measure to address the serious problem of human smuggling. The bill is clearly a reaction to the arrival of a group of Tamil migrants aboard the ship Sun Sea in Vancouver in August 2010 less than a year after another group of Tamil migrants arrived in BC via the ship Ocean Lady in October 2009.   The rhetoric following these arrivals were sadly filled with sweeping judgments against the migrants even before they were accorded due process within our refugee determination system.   These migrants who have all submitted refugee claims were branded as “queue jumpers”, “terrori