Refuge or Refuse?

"I came to Canada as a refugee. Forty-five years later, Canada is a refuge still."

--Joe Schlesinger, quoted by Donald Sutherland at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver

I have to admit I was depressed to read the rantings of the vast majority of cbc.ca respondents in the matter of the MV Sun Sea and its human cargo, which is currently being "processed" in Esquimalt, B.C.

Depressed, but not surprised.

The boat set sail from Thailand three months ago, loaded to the gunwales with Sri Lankans, whom our government would have you believe are all terrorists simply because there exists a separatist movement (the "Tamil Tigers") which has resorted to violence in the face of attempted genocide. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, of course: a point that is often lost on our government.

Now the ship has docked in Canada, and the refugees are touching off a firestorm of vicious and self-serving vitriol that, dare I say it, sounds remarkably...Conservative.

I can't get a docotor [sic] appointment, I wait in line at walk in clinic, [sic] I am Canadian Born and raised, I pay taxes, These people need to go back to thier [sic] country and if they still want to come to Canada Apply and try. Do not just show up and expect "my" tax dollars to pay for it. This is totally WRONG.

--"snowbob"

At time of writing, 747 people AGREED with this comment, 141 DISAGREED

Wow, this "snowbob" guy must be pretty well off. Imagine, HIS tax dollars, and apparently his alone, are paying the whole shot here. Well off, but like so many of his ilk, ignorant of basic grammar and the spell-check function on his computer, among many other things.

"Don't waste my tax money on processing these queue jumpers.
Send them immediately back on the barge they came on, and tell them in no uncertain terms, you want to emigrate to Canada, get in line and apply for it pal."

--"badgov."

At time of writing, 660 people AGREED with this comment, 114 people DISAGREED

Another rich guy...immeasurably richer than the migrants on the MV Sun Sea, who were fleeing intolerable conditions, certain persecution and quite possibly death in their homeland. Twenty five years on, it's safe to say the Sri Lankans don't have a buddy-buddy attitude with regard to their Tamil minority. Nearly 500 people paid $40,000-50,000 each and endured three months on a "very cramped" ship for a chance at--never mind "a better life"--a life worth living.

"'Processing'? How hard can it be to put them back on the boat?"

"donnie666"

At time of writing, 594 people AGREED with this comment, 98 people DISAGREED

Well, I don't know, there, Donnie. Does your compassion extend to provisioning the boat for the return trip--food, water, fuel--or does the '666' you've helpfully appended to your name signify a wish to set the Sun Sea adrift and kill 'em all off?

No matter: either course of action is illegal under international law. We have an obligation under our own Charter of Rights and Freedoms, also as a signatory to the United Nations' Convention on Refugees, to process all refugee claimants who reach Canadian soil.

Minister Toewes has said this is a "test ship" and that people are waiting to see what the Canadian government will do, before possibly launching more ships loaded with more smuggled human cargo.

So here's what the Canadian government should do. Welcome the refugees as per its usual process and obligation. Then go after the smugglers who brought them here using every means at its disposal. Sources suggest the people behind this enterprise stand to make more than $20 million from this one ship alone. So it seems to me that's a fair and just starting point. If we hit these smugglers hard in the pocketbook, they're apt to think twice about future excursions.

Is our welcoming of refugees fair to those who immigrate "legally"? (Claiming asylum, last I looked, is perfectly legal.)

Perhaps not. But neither is it fair to turn a blind eye to those seeking refuge from conditions we in Canada can't begin to imagine. I would argue--here's my inner Conservative coming out--that migrant or immigrant should be subject to the same responsibilities, to go along with their rights: to demonstrate a basic proficiency in either of Canada's official languages within a set period of time, and to assimilate lawfully and peacefully into Canadian society. I don't believe this is too much to ask.

In the meantime, I bemoan the creeping lack of empathy and compassion that is slowly but surely contaminating my country. I hate like hell to think that most Canadians would rather repeat the tragic error made by our government in the 1930s, when we sent a ship of Jewish refugees back where it came from.

I think we all know what happened next.