Speaking notes - Opening remarks for the Hon. Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism “Canada’s commitment to refugees: Celebrating successes and reflecting on the challenges ahead” Canadian Council for Refugees’ fall consultation

Toronto, Ontario, November 27, 2008

As delivered

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Good morning, everyone. Thank you for your tremendous participation and the support, the interest, the commitment that your presence here represents for those who come to Canada seeking refuge, and thank you to the organization for the invitation.

Let me just begin by saying that I’ve only been in this position for three weeks so go easy on me. I’m learning. I’m an eager learner and I’m a listener. So I’m a little regretful that my first interchange with CCR is with me talking rather than me listening.

I’d rather have a chance to have a roundtable and sit through some of the sessions that I see on the program today than stand up and deliver the typical political set piece speech. But that’s not how it worked out because you sent me an invitation to this and so I made a real effort to come down while we’re sitting in Ottawa to give you some remarks, tell you where I’m coming from, to identify what I think are some of the obvious strengths of our system and also some of the things that we need to work on together to improve.

I also want to apologize in advance that I’m going to have to leave right after my remarks because I’m expected to be in Ottawa in the House of Commons as shortly after noon as possible. So I am a little bit under the time gun.

But I wanted to make an effort to come down to wish you all a happy 30th anniversary. Are there any people here who were involved in this organization 30 years ago? Put up your hands. Let’s recognize them. Now that is real commitment. That’s not just dedication. That’s total commitment. Congratulations to those veterans of this remarkable work in the advancement of human dignity and in the promotion of Canada’s highest values.

As the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, I believe very strongly that when Canada offers refuge, our nation is richer for it. Each year we welcome from every corner of the world almost a quarter of a million newcomers who embrace our values of freedom, of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Among them are thousands of refugees attracted by our historically-grounded values and the chance to start a new life. Their courage reminds us that we must all stand up to tyranny around the world.

The welcome we extend to victims of persecution has given us in Canada an international reputation as a champion of human dignity.

Since the government to which I belong came to office in 2006, for instance, we have welcomed more than 51,000 refugees from around the world.

I’m here today to assure you that I will be a strong advocate and supporter of the humanitarian dimension of our immigration program. This means a great deal to me. I didn’t get here early enough to see if I have any personal friends or acquaintances in this audience but I can tell you that political vocation was my passion for human dignity and human rights. The most satisfying thing I’ve done in my parliamentary tenure was to chair the International Human Rights Subcommittee of the House of Commons.

And I can tell you one of the most gratifying things I’ve done as a parliamentarian and as a minister has been to work on particular cases to help people who are victims of persecution come to Canada. People like Lu Decheng who was one of the brave young champions of democracy in Tiananmen Square in 1989 who was arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison for having been part of those protests, managed to escape from prison in China and eventually get to Thailand where that government was under enormous pressure to extradite him back to unthinkable circumstances in China. I worked hard with others, including a private sponsorship group in Calgary, to have him brought to Canada where Lu Decheng is now prospering in my home city.

I’ve worked to help many individuals like Lu and people like Magda Yusuf who was unfortunately found not to have a legitimate claim for protection in Canada, was deported to Egypt where he suffered torture, and I was pleased to work with my predecessor in having him come back to Canada.

I also, like all of you, have gotten to know some remarkable people who came to Canada as refugees and notwithstanding the adversity that they experienced have gone on to make enormous contributions to our life together. People like one of my best friends, the former National Caucus Chair of the government, Rahim Jaffer, came to Canada as an infant refugee from Idi Amin’s Uganda following the expulsion of the Asian Africans in the early 1970s. And imagine someone having been a victim of that kind of racial persecution, who only 24 years later became elected to the Parliament of a G-7 country. That is the greatness that is Canada.

People like my former Chief of Staff, Tenzin Khangsar, who came to Canada as the child of Tibetan refugees fleeing persecution abroad who is making an enormous contribution to our public life.

So these kinds of relationships, these kinds of individuals, are people who have affected me and have given me a deep personal commitment to ensure that Canada’s hospitality, Canada’s generosity is available to people around the world.

So I believe in Canada’s longstanding humanitarian tradition of welcoming refugees and displaced persons.

And one thing I think we should celebrate is that this is a tradition which has reflected a widespread political consensus in Canada right across the spectrum. Unlike in many other western democracies, there is no political formation in Canada which opposes immigration or which seeks to make political benefit from opposing the difficulties faced by immigrants and refugees.

For instance, in the late 1950s, it was Premier Leslie Frost’s government here in Ontario, and particularly the first Ontario Immigration Minister at the time, John Yaremko, who led the campaign to accept thousands of Hungarian refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion in 1956. They helped to persuade the federal government then to give some 38,000 Hungarians safe haven here in Canada.

In the Diefenbaker era, Immigration Minister Ellen Fairclough in 1962 introduced a more generous policy on refugees and tabled changes to the Immigration Act to eliminate racial discrimination as a consideration in our immigration policy.

In 1979, it was Prime Minister Clark’s government that opened Canada’s doors to the Vietnamese boat people. And of course successive governments followed suit with some 100,000 Vietnamese refugees being accepted over the following 16 years and really introducing so many Canadians to the idea and the success story of refugee resettlement policy.

Now while many of those fleeing Vietnam found homes in Canada and elsewhere, there were 160 who remained without status in the Philippines.

Last spring, my predecessor, the Honourable Diane Finley, announced that our government would facilitate on humanitarian and compassionate grounds the immigration of these Vietnamese who had remained stateless in the Philippines. And I’m proud to say I recently welcomed to Canada one of those families and they are delighted finally after 28 years to have a home that they can count on.

Of course in the late 1980s and early 1990s the government of Prime Minister Mulroney welcomed to Canada tens of thousands of victims of violence from Somalia, many of whom have made their homes here in the Greater Toronto Area but are now, I think, starting to see increasing success in terms of economic integration in other parts of the country such as my home province of Alberta.

This year we’ve made major commitments for the protection of Karen and Bhutanese refugees in Asia. We’ve also offered protection to refugees from Africa and Latin America. And of course, as you know, we’ve also done so with respect to refugees from Iraq. And I see that that’s an issue of concern to you.

I’m not going to be able to stay for all the speeches but I read Liz — she was very kind enough to share with me her speech and she’s going to raise the issue of Iraqi refugees.

As you know, overall, Canada is one of the top three countries in the world in terms of the numbers of refugees we accept for resettlement.

We have a very generous asylum program as well. Asylum seekers from just about every corner of the world have found a durable solution to their refugee plight in Canada.

These are all facts we can take great pride in.

Long before my appointment earlier this month, I traveled across Canada, telling audiences how proud I am of this country’s reputation as a model of pluralism.

Ours is a shared history of accommodating differences in culture, language, and religion—and an abiding belief in values like human dignity and freedom of conscience.

Ladies and gentlemen, I share your interest in family reunification, in children’s issues and refugee protection and the successful integration of newcomers into Canadian society. I note looking at your program that you will be discussing, among other things, the issues of human trafficking and I’m very, very keen to hear your ideas on what more the Government of Canada can do to combat that scourge here and abroad.

My colleague in the government, Member of Parliament, Joy Smith, has been leading raising awareness on the plight of the victims of human trafficking in Parliament and I’ve worked closely with my colleague, Congressman Chris Smith, one of the leading champions of the fight against human trafficking in the U.S. Congress over the years as well.

As you know, our government did make changes to improve flexibility for visas for the victims of human trafficking here in Canada. If there is more that we can and should do, I think you will—I know you will—find in me and our government a willing partner.

As well, I note you’ll be discussing issues related to racism which obviously are relevant to many, if not all, refugees. And I’ll be pleased to discuss with you in the future how we can ensure that the $53 million in the National Action Plan Against Racism and the Multiculturalism Program are actually producing results and not just talk but actual results in combating racism in Canada.

I also note in your program that you’ll be discussing the issues of the rights of temporary workers. This is something that I’m concerned about as well. I note the recent legislation adopted in Manitoba about protecting the rights of temporary workers, ensuring that they benefit from minimal, the basic, labour standards that everyone else does and I’d like to hear your ideas about what we can do because I believe (this may not be shared by everyone in this room but I believe) that we have enormous labour-market needs even in this period of economic uncertainty.

And with the new Canadian Experience Class, we will be opening the door to permanent residency here in Canada, to many people who come here as temporary foreign workers. We need to ensure that their experience in Canada is a positive one.

Another issue I’d like to raise but didn’t see on your schedule is the question of the rights of live-in caregivers. There’s been a considerable expansion of that program in our immigration profile in the last while, and many tens of thousands of mainly women, sometimes vulnerable women, come to Canada to work as live-in caregivers. We’ve all read too many stories of their abuse and we need to find a way with the necessarily limited resources at our disposal to ensure that the laws, which are already on the books, are properly enforced to protect those people.

I also note from my preview of the next speech an issue of processing times for private sponsorship. I was shocked to read that processing times for private sponsorships out of Nigeria are now taking some 48 months. That’s clearly not acceptable, and we need to find a way to resolve that. I had thought that the private sponsorship program was a fast track for refugee status to Canada. So I’m willing to admit my ignorance and willing to admit my need to learn from you all.

I also know that you have concerns regarding recent changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. So please allow me to address those concerns for a moment.

We have an enormous backlog of skilled worker applications. You know the backlog is now over 600,000. By getting that backlog under control and by ensuring that the economic side of our economic program better aligns with our labour market needs, we will strengthen the system overall and reinforce public support for it, which is always critical. That, in due course, will allow us to devote more time and resources to the humanitarian side of our immigration program. That’s my intention.

Let me be absolutely clear about this. If I believed that our efforts to improve the skilled foreign worker program were in any way injurious to the humanitarian dimension of our immigration policy, I would not support it.

And I do not believe that is the case. I think we can all agree that Canada’s refugee system is acknowledged as one of the strongest and fairest in the world today, although, of course, it’s not perfect. No less than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called it a model for other nations. I think we can also agree that there is room for improvement.

As everyone in this room knows, we face significant challenges in the system. One of those challenges, which I alluded to in terms of the processing time for sponsorships, is the long wait times that it takes to process applications. I acknowledge that filling vacancies at the Immigration and Refugee Board is part of the solution and I commit to you that I will act to fill those vacancies with qualified individuals as quickly as I can.

But that’s not the silver bullet that’s going to solve the problem of the waiting times. The problems run deeper than that. As a new Minister, I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But as I said, I’m a keen listener and I’m open to any sensible idea to improve our immigration system in general, and our refugee program in particular. I know that there are many such ideas in this room based on many years of real experience and remarkable service to others.

In my judgement, one of the challenges we face is where even the most straightforward successful refugee claims currently take far too long to reach a decision. I believe that one of our goals should be to focus more of our time and resources on the people who most genuinely need our help and protection while dealing more quickly with those who try to take advantage of Canada’s generosity. And there are such people. I don’t need to go through all of the stories; the public hears them all too frequently.

Now, Canadians are proud of our support for refugees, but less than one in four Canadians approve of how we deal with false claimants and I think that this can jeopardize support for the refugee system in general. For instance, lately there’s been a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers from Mexico and, as the media have correctly pointed out, almost 90 percent of those claims are being rejected. For asylum claims that are accepted by the IRB, it takes two years to grant permanent residence from the time the claim is made. But fewer than half of all refugee claimants, 43 ]percent, are found by the Board to be in need of Canada’s protection.

Quite frankly, my concern is that broad public support for Canada’s generous refugee system can be undermined by the abuse that too often occurs. I can tell you I’m somebody who, for the last two and a half years, has crisscrossed the country non-stop, talking to new Canadians and members of our cultural communities.

My sense is that it’s particularly acute among people who’ve come to Canada, patiently waiting sometimes for years, establishing themselves, and then waiting for several years longer to be reunited with their families. They have a sense of injustice when they see cases of abuse of our refugee system for people who are effectively seeking economic migration to Canada.

So I think this raises a question which I know will not be a popular one for me to put in this room, but I want a frank exchange, not a fake one. Should we be treating every claim of political persecution from Mexico, Britain or the Czech Republic with precisely the same weight as claims from Zimbabwe, Sudan or North Korea? Or should we find a way to ensure that refugee claimants coming from conflict zones or totalitarian societies are given a preferential option over those coming from liberal democracies?

I think these are reasonable questions that should not be dismissed out of hand. And they’re questions around which I’m eager to open a dialogue. As I said at the outset, I intend to be a strong advocate for the humanitarian dimension of our immigration program. I want Canada to continue to be a world leader in accepting refugees. I would like us to work closely with the UN and through our private sponsorship program to accept more refugees living in deplorable and often dangerous situations in the world. To be able to say that may well require some changes and some rebalancing with fewer resources going to those who violate our laws and abuse Canada’s generosity, while directing more resources to those who are most in need of our protection. Needless to say, any such changes must be consistent with our laws, our Constitution, and our highest values.

In closing, Canada is a blessed nation, a champion of human dignity. We will continue to work with the international community to offer protection to genuine refugees and to support our humanitarian traditions.

On December the 10th, 2008, Canada will join people around the world in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights. The theme for our celebrations will be Dignity and Justice for All of Us.

No one better reminds us of the inherent dignity of the human person or the universal call to justice than the innocent victims of persecution, violence and war. My own experience with such people tells me that they give more to us than we can ever give to them. They quietly teach us about the sanctity of human life.

They remind us that the liberty which we take for granted every day is a jewel without price and they often inspire us with their example of conscientious witness against tyranny and oppression.

Canada will continue to be a place of hope and refuge for such people the world over. And it will do so in no small part thanks to the three decades of service and advocacy and practical charity of the Canadian Council for Refugees and its member organizations represented here today.

Thanks to your efforts, refugees can feel secure in Canada as they go about establishing new homes, reuniting with family, and ensuring a bright future for their children. I congratulate you on 30 years helping to build the harmony in a country that is universally admired. I wish you a very fruitful consultation and I look forward to hearing reports back from my officials on your deliberations over the next day or two.

Thank you very much.