In a sense, the debate over whether Canada should loosen its immigration criteria to allow more Haitians into the country is moot.
The Quebec government has already decided it will. It plans to invoke its “power of selection” clause in a 1991 immigration deal with Ottawa. Since 90 per cent of Canada’s 100,000-strong Haitian community lives in Quebec, the die is cast.
Under the federal family reunification program, the immediate family of a Canadian sponsor — spouses, parents, grandparents, adoptive children and brothers and sisters — can be admitted on a temporary or permanent basis. But extended families — nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles — cannot.
In response to the humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti, as well as to pressure from the local Haitian community, Quebec will extend sponsorship eligibility to the latter category.
The federal government has already fast-tracked applications for thousands in the first group and expedited the adoption process for 150 orphans, some of whom arrived over the weekend. Sensibly, federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is also permitting 1,000 temporary Haitian residents to remain in Canada a while longer, rather than repatriating them to a disaster zone.
But Kenney has been taking heat from the Liberals and NDP, who want him to make an exception for extended families, given the magnitude of the homelessness problem in Haiti and the inability of the Haitian government to cope with the crisis.
They point out the rules have been bent in the past, most notably for Vietnamese boat people. On the other hand, they weren’t for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
So should Kenney go the extra mile in this case? Apart from the fact that Quebec has, in large part, taken the decision out of his hands, we agree with Kenney’s more cautious approach.
No one can accuse Canada of failing Haiti — the prime minister even hosted an international conference on rebuilding Haiti on Monday — but Ottawa’s first responsibility is toward Canadians. And rubber-stamping as many Haitian applications as possible is not in the best interests of Canadians, nor of applicants from other parts of the world who will remain stuck in the queue as a result.
Even the Quebec government, which talks up the importance of being flexible in times of crisis, concedes it will limit the influx. Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James says that even with increased Haitian immigration, the province is not prepared to exceed this year’s total target of up to 55,000 new immigrants. “We have to be able to respect our capacity to integrate and to welcome Haitians here,” she said.
She also said there’ll be delays. “I understand the frustration that a lot of people can feel . . . (But) in terms of security (and) in terms of health checks, there are some things that need to be looked at — we don’t want to create another problem.”
Ultimately, Ottawa has struck the right balance here. While welcoming helpless Haitians, it is still exercising due diligence on behalf of Canadians.
– From an editorial in the Halifax Chronicle Herald