Refugee plan to exclude single males
Urgent need for details, critics say
OTTAWA • Gay men will be among the Syrian refugees coming to Canada under a government plan that welcomes primarily women, children and families.
Security concerns over extremists potentially slipping in to the country mean the Liberal government likely will exclude unaccompanied males from its planned resettlement of 25,000 refugees by Dec. 31.
The government is aware gay men in the region could be persecuted, and plans to include them in the selection process aimed at rescuing some of the most vulnerable refugees.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister John McCallum was to release details of the election promise Tuesday.
In a statement Monday, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair worried about a ban on lone-male refugee claimants.
“While security concerns remain of vital importance, will a young man who lost both parents be excluded from the refugee program?” Mulcair asked.
“Will a widower who is fleeing Daesh (another name for ISIL) after having seen his family killed be excluded? This is not the Canadian way.”
Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel said the government urgently needs to explain the details of its plan.
“Everything we’ve seen is a ‘fly by the seat of their pants’ approach on this.”
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall sent a letter to the prime minister last week urging him to suspend the Syrian refugee plan because there might not be enough time to do sufficient security screening by the end of December.
Wall told reporters Monday he felt the “fast-approaching deadline” and quota of 25,000 was “probably not the best public policy.”
“We don’t have to stop the initiative, but we shouldn’t be working toward a deadline.
“Let’s just make sure we’re driven ... to ensure good settlement results for the refugees themselves in the communities to which they’re moving — and also from a security perspective.”
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who has been supportive of the federal government’s refugee initiative, said she would hold off commenting on specifics until they are unveiled Tuesday.
“What I know is that we will work with our partners at the federal level. We are getting ready. Our officials are getting ready, we’re looking for space, we are putting in place what we can to ensure that as people arrive that there is accommodation,” Wynne said.
Gerard Van Kessel, a former director-general of the government’s refugee resettlement program and the separate refugee determination program, said while the lone-male exclusion eliminates some security concerns, “What do they mean by families?”
If you have an 18-year-old son, does he qualify as part of a family, Van Kessel asked? “Is that person coming in?”
Van Kessel was involved in the 1999 emergency airlift to Canada of 5,000 Kosovars fleeing the war in the Balkans. Some of the processing took place after they arrived here.
He said “there’s no way” the government can meet a Dec. 31 deadline “without shortcuts.”
“If we get a terrorist in the group (arriving in Canada) that terrorist is not going to wait to be identified, he will disappear and end up in the woodwork.”