Lockout Casualty Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Roma refugees victims of systemic discrimination in Canada, new report finds Many claimants faced bias and unfair treatment Hungarian Roma who came to Canada claiming refugee status encountered unfair treatment by lawyers, politicians and government officials, according to a new study prepared by a team of legal researchers in Toronto. The report, entitled No Refuge: Hungarian Romani Refugee Claimants in Canada, is being released later today by a group refugee law experts from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. The group examined more than 11,000 refugee claimants in Canada between 2008 and 2012 and found that only 8.6 per cent of those claims were successful while more than half were abandoned or withdrawn. The report was prepared by Sean Rehaag, a law professor, along with Julianna Beaudoin and Jennifer Danch. While international agencies were documenting an increase in cases of persecution of Roma in Hungary, Rehaag said the Canadian government was painting a picture of Roma as "bogus" refugee claimants and petty thieves who were only coming to Canada to take advantage of the welfare system. "Cracking down on alleged abuse of the refugee-determination system was a major policy objective of the government and Hungarian Roma were repeatedly held up as the prime example of this alleged abuse," the report states. Rehaag said the government's policy set a dangerous precedent. "If we send people back to face persecution, then we are breaking international law and so the consequences are serious for claimants and for the country," he said. The report also cites cases of Refugee Review Board members trading information and using a cookie-cutter approach by "copying long passages from reasons denying other Hungarian Romani cases rather than writing unique reasons engaging with the specific circumstances of each case." 'Luck of the draw' Data also shows that Roma claimants faced a "luck of the draw" situation in which some review board members approved as many as half of all Roma claimants while others rejected every Roma case they heard. In separate interviews, stakeholders told the researchers that they believed some review board members avoided granting Roma refugee status because they felt they would not be re-appointed by the government. "It sent a message to the Board Members that if you want to be renewed, you toe the party line," the report stated. "The problems are systemic and the failures are systemic," Rehaag said in an interview with CBC News. "Those claimants were entitled to access a fair refugee determination process. They were entitled not to be vilified by politicians seeking to buttress their 'get-tough on queue jumpers' line." Rehaag also cites cases where several lawyers took on hundreds of Roma refugee cases and were paid by Legal Aid but failed to adequately represent their clients. In some cases, documents were not filed before the hearings, their narratives were not complete and clients were not properly prepared. In some cases the lawyers even failed to show up for the hearings. Little hope for appeals One Toronto lawyer, Viktor Hohots, handled more than 500 cases yet of those, only six were successful and granted refugee status. Hohots is one of several lawyers now facing disciplinary hearings before the Law Society of Upper Canada. Hohots admitted to professional misconduct at a hearing last month and will face a penalty hearing in May. Almost all of the Roma whose cases were studied either withdrew or were deported since they had little or no opportunity to appeal under the law. Rehaag hopes the federal government and other institutions will learn from his research and make changes to prevent such widespread discrimination from occurring in the future. "Canada still has some distance to go to fully embrace respect for the human rights of those seeking refuge from hatred, racism and xenophobia," the report states. "The country must do better." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/roma-refugees-victims-of-systemic-discrimination-in-canada-new-report-finds-1.3018837 This is just despicable behavior by everyone involved, from government officials who stoked the flame to lawyers who refused to represent their clients to the best of their abilities. I can't help but feel quite a few people deserve to get canned and disciplined for this. I also can't help but feel nobody will. If Jason Kenney can lie to Canadians on a weekly basis, as he has been doing, there's little hope for anything to change. In the broader sense, I find this to be extremely symptomatic of the Conservative's time at the helm over the last four years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dral Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Would be a nice thought to think Canada's history of turning away refugees was well in the past... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 As a Hungarian, good. These people are nothing but dead weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster6 Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 My question is: How many refugees can we accept before we start hurting our own country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonMexico Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I will look on your treasures gypsy. Is this understood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dral Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 My question is: How many refugees can we accept before we start hurting our own country. As long as there is a proper support system to integrate and help them become productive members of society.... we'll never come close to finding out.. The key tho, is a proper support system - the work that needs to be done AFTER they come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Sikes Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 My question is: How many refugees can we accept before we start hurting our own country. I think that number disappeared in the rearview mirror a long time ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster6 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 As long as there is a proper support system to integrate and help them become productive members of society.... we'll never come close to finding out.. The key tho, is a proper support system - the work that needs to be done AFTER they come Our government structures are barely designed to look after it's own citizens. Let alone refugees who will have a hard time/don't want to, assimilate into our culture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otherwise Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 My question is: How many refugees can we accept before we start hurting our own country. I know a lot of refugees most of them have jobs (the ones who don't are stay at home moms), some own their own business, all are learning/know english. They work hard and are friendly people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster6 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I know a lot of refugees most of them have jobs (the ones who don't are stay at home moms), some own their own business, all are learning/know english. They work hard and are friendly people. Most of the refugees in Canada are ones that can provide immeasurable services to our nation, rarely is it people with shallow levels of skill, unless their back story is horrifyingly tragic. I know a girl I went to school with who's parents were both born in Iraq. Fortunately her father was a doctor and had a resume for getting in. Most don't have the luxury, and quite frankly I can't blame our government for turning them away. Every story is different, but we can't accept everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dral Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I know a lot of refugees most of them have jobs (the ones who don't are stay at home moms), some own their own business, all are learning/know english. They work hard and are friendly people. xenophobics won't listen to you, still I thought I'd give you a +1 anyways Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dral Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Our government structures are barely designed to look after it's own citizens. Let alone refugees who will have a hard time/don't want to, assimilate into our culture. I'd say they are well designed but poorly implemented Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobble Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Ye like dags? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster6 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 xenophobics won't listen to you I'm not xenophobic whatsoever. I'm idiot-o-phobic. And quite frankly there aren't a lot of highly educated people coming from countries that create refugees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbsx86 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Who cares if they're discriminated against. We're full. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drummer4now Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Who cares if they're discriminated against. We're full. Lol. How so? We have a population of 33 million or so and compare that to the size of the country and resources its honestly laughable at most.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster6 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Lol. How so? We have a population of 33 million or so and compare that to the size of the country and resources its honestly laughable at most.. He's kinda gotchu there. It's not that we don't have the space our resources. I would just argue that you have to have something to offer, to join the team. Also I believe it's upward of 35 million. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drummer4now Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 He's kinda gotchu there. It's not that we don't have the space our resources. I would just argue that you have to have something to offer, to join the team. Also I believe it's upward of 35 million. True. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostsof1915 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 When have we ever discriminated against Totti? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GLASSJAW Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 even though he's far more associated with Fiorentina, Batistuta is an all-time fav striker with mine. loved watching him play for Roma back in the day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.