As the federal government prepares to grant permanent residency for Ukrainian refugees with family in Canada, other refugees sleep on sidewalks in front of Toronto shelters that are at capacity. Still more remain barred from entering Canada as they flee the Taliban, targeted because members of their family worked with the Canadian military.
The federal government announced the new program for Ukrainian refugees on July 15, the same day that applications close for the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET).
More than 170,000 people fleeing Ukraine have obtained emergency visas in Canada since March 2022. In total, the war in Ukraine has led to more than 6.2 million people being displaced as of July 2023.
But Canada has not shown the same humanitarian commitment for refugees fleeing humanitarian crises in places like Afghanistan and Sudan.
Canada’s refugee policy is not supposed to be a merit-based system. All that matters is that a person is fleeing inhumane conditions. Refugee administration is not supposed to rank refugees based on deservingness or value-added.
“The policy that’s been used, which should be a uniform policy for all refugees, certainly seems to be very uniform,” said Themrise Khan, Independent research professional and co-editor of White Saviorism in International Development. Theories, Practices and Lived Experiences.
“It’s just such a glaring difference between the two,” Khan added.
The case of Ukraine
Four days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, then-Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced that Canada would accept an “unlimited number” of refugees from the country.
Within the next 30 days, the federal government launched a number of special measures including CUAET, waiving fees and expediting applications for Ukrainian nationals and their families to live, work, and study in Canada.
The measures have not been without serious flaws. Ukrainian nationals with non-Ukrainian spouses and children have called out significant processing delays, despite Canada’s statement that they are also eligible for the special measures.
It is also not the first time that Canada has implemented focused efforts towards particular groups of refugees, pointed out Professor Edward Koning, who specializes in the politics of immigrants’ social rights at the University of Guelph.
The federal government implemented special measures for refugees from Syria since November 2015. Since then, about 44,600 people have come to Canada from Syria as refugees.
In the case of Ukraine, though, “the actions of the Putin government are generally seen as a concern for the international order. So maybe Canada feels like it has a little bit more skin in the game in this particular conflict,” said Koning.
Alongside its efforts towards bringing in refugees, Canada has been ramping up spending on military aid towards Ukraine.
129 Peter St.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has denied Toronto mayor Olivia Chow’s request for federal assistance to create more shelter spaces for refugees that have been left stranded on the streets of Toronto.
Hundreds of asylum seekers were forced to camp out in front of the assessment and referral centre on 129 Peter Street when the city shelter system ran out of beds. The refugees all reportedly came from countries in Africa, including Uganda and Sudan.
“The situation outside of 129 Peter St. is inherently anti-Black,” tweeted Diana Chan McNally, a front-line worker who helped to organize aid to the asylum seekers.
Instead of taking responsibility for the crisis, the three levels of government entered a game of finger-pointing over questions of jurisdiction.
Then, in the midst of government inaction, a group of Black-led community organizations stepped in and bussed more than 200 of the asylum seekers to the Revivaltime Tabrenacle Church in North York.
But the government’s inaction has bad optics. It suggests to the public that humanitarian crises affecting Black people are not as serious as others, and that racialized peoples’ suffering is not as serious.
“The world is accustomed to the stereotypical face of the refugee. The well-worn images of the Black or Brown face,” writes Kandice Pardy in Policy Options. “People mutter sympathetic words and unvaryingly move on.”
The Taliban’s invasion of Afghanistan
A lawsuit filed this May alleges that Canada’s special measures for Ukrainian refugees demonstrate that Canada is discriminating against refugee applicants from Afghanistan. It asks, why did Canada not go to the same lengths to accommodate Afghan applicants? Plaintiffs say the disparity constitutes a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Afghan individuals had worked with the Canadian military as language and culture advisers while Canada was directly taking part in the war. Service members officially pulled out of the country in March 2014, and some families have been trying to seek asylum in Canada ever since.
Then the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021. As they cracked down on people with connections to the Canadian military, the matter became even more critical.
“We want to welcome Afghan families who’ve helped Canadians, who fought for justice, who’ve fought for rights for the LGBT community, for women, for journalists,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the day the Taliban declared victory.
READ MORE: Are Ukraine’s refugees different than those from Syria, Afghanistan or Palestine?
“We’ve been in [Afghanistan] for decades. We owe them,” said Khan,
But a slew of administrative barriers has prevented Afghan families from reuniting in Canada. Refugees who are currently residing in third-countries are not eligible to come to Canada, even if they risk being deported back to Afghanistan. Eligible family connections also exclude step-siblings, although Afghan Canadians say the distinction is meaningless to the Taliban.
Individuals were reportedly encouraged by the prospect of bringing their families to Canada when they decided to work with the Canadian military in Afghanistan.
“We’ve made many, many promises, when we employed Afghans,” Khan said. “To completely renege on those promises is not just against policy, but it’s going against, you know, ethics and morality,”
A troubling comparison
Just over 35,000 refugees from Afghanistan came to Canada through all streams of immigration between August 2021 and July 2023.
Both Khan and Koning warn, however, that pointing out the unequal treatment of refugee groups can descend into pitting refugee groups against each other. “That comparison is prone to being misinterpreted [as] taking sides,” Khan warned. “That’s not the case.”
The goal is never to suggest that people in need of assistance should not be helped out, Khan said. But Canada’s decisions to provide humanitarian assistance cannot be motivated by electoral campaigns, international politics, economic interests, and certainly not racial bias – it must be informed by simple humanitarian concern.
Khan and others advocate for Canada’s approach to refugees to be universal, and not differentiated based on which crisis they are fleeing from. If someone is coming to Canada a refugee, it is a given that they are in dire need of help.
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
