Tories to present refugee bill
New laws will counter 'disturbing trends' of mass arrivals: PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 | 4:26 PM ET
CBC News
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The federal government will present new legislation on Thursday aiming to curb the number of refugee claimants arriving on Canada's shores, CBC News has learned.
The Sun Sea before its arrival in British Columbia in August. CBC News has learned the federal government will introduce legislation this week to deter such mass arrivals of refugee claimants. (Department of National Defence)The Conservative government first raised the possibility of new laws in August following the arrival in British Columbia of 492 Tamil migrants on the Sun Sea.
In a speech Tuesday afternoon at a citizenship ceremony in Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the government will introduce "strong new laws" to counter the "deeply disturbing trends" of mass arrivals through human smuggling "designed to jump the queue and work around the system."
The new laws "will provide strong incentives to turn those who want to live in Canada away from that behaviour and toward the legitimate channels of entry which you have pursued," Harper told the audience, without providing any details about the legislation.
If the government failed to act, Harper warned that Canadians would lose confidence in the system, which would inevitably lead to a "massive collapse" in public support for immigration.
The new legislation comes amid reports of at least one other vessel carrying human cargo preparing to depart from Southeast Asia for Canadian waters.
Shortly after the arrival of the Sun Sea in August, the prime minister insisted Canada is a "land of refuge," but the "abnormal" arrival of a ship carrying migrants creates "significant security concerns" the government has a responsibility to handle.
As a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, Canada must process all refugee claimants who reach Canadian soil.
Representatives of the Tamil migrants said they were fleeing persecution after the country's bloody 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers.
The Tamil Tigers were defeated in May 2009 and a recent UN report states that Tamils need no longer be presumed to be fleeing imminent harm in Sri Lanka.
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