Two sides to the border-crossing debate

Re: Irregular or illegal? Fight over what to call thousands of migrants, July 11, Tristin Hopper “Irregular” is what marks an unanticipated or unearned pay bonus. “Irregular” is a heartbeat skipped by stress or cardiovascular illness. “Irregular” is the election of an NDP government in Alberta. “Irregular” is not what is occurring at Canada’s borders where legal means of entry exist.

Under the Customs Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, anyone seeking to enter Canada must report to an officer of the Canada Border Services Agency at a designated port of entry and answer the officer’s questions truthfully (2013 Fall Report of the Auditor General of Canada, Chapter 5 — Preventing Illegal Entry Into Canada). According to both acts, failure to do so characterizes even a waved refugee claim entry as initially illegal, not “irregular” as the Liberal and NDP benches misinform us. To suggest otherwise is to classify bank robbery — coerced or volitional — as simply an irregular currency withdrawal.

This is not a criticism of government policy or a call to disregard the needs of those forcibly or voluntarily dispossessed. Rather, it is a request for accurate wording and unbiased reportage on a contentious issue that has been further complicated by purposeful semantic imprecision.

Graham R. Mann, Winnipeg

Canada received not even 0.2 per cent of the world’s refugees and refugee claimants last year. This is equivalent to 0.14 per cent of its own population, which is similar to what other developed and Western countries have welcomed: from 0.24 in Germany to 0.1 in the U.S. Ultimately, not all of them will be entitled to stay on Canadian territory given that their refugee claims will be independently and individually assessed by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board. In past years, and this was true last year, too, when the numbers started to increase, some 60 per cent of refugee claimants have been recognized as refugees, i.e. families who cannot go back home without fearing being killed or tortured. This is far from being a crisis, I trust we can all agree. The choice of words to label those crossing in-between official customs, through small roads in the countryside — in particular in Quebec (where 95 per cent of the irregular arrivals took place) is not trivial. It bears consequences on how these persons are perceived by the wider population. It is entirely correct that Canadian Custom Act requires that one presents oneself to a “customs office designated for that purpose” to enter Canada. Therefore, making the crossing elsewhere, an illegal act. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, however, adds an important nuance: those who do cross elsewhere but do so to claim asylum shall not be punished. Canadian law here simply recognizes that persons fleeing for your life are not always in a position to secure valid travel documents in advance. There is therefore nothing “illegal” — or indeed, nothing “criminal” — about doing so. It is just an abnormal way to enter Canada due to exceptional circumstances linked to the reason one is coming to Canada.

By ratifying the 1951 Convention in 1969, Canada must ensure that it will give a meaning to the right, under the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of “everyone (...) to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” This is what Canada has done since then, by ensuring that refugee claimants, once on its territory, have access to a hearing to present their case. Let us not forget about who we are speaking about here: families fleeing conflicts in Syrian, Somalia or Yemen, violence in Palestine, early marriage, female genital mutilations or sexual violence in Haiti or Nigeria, or discrimination due to their sexual orientation or peaceful political opinion or religious beliefs in other countries.

This is far from being an exaggerated interpretation of the law; I trust too that we can all agree that Canada must protect them. Jean-Nicolas Beuze, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ottawa

PAUL CHIASSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES An asylum seeker, claiming to be from Eritrea, is questioned by an RCMP officer as he crosses the border into Canada from the United States last August near Champlain, N.Y.