Let's Remember Who We Are

The first boatload of migrants was soon followed by others. They were fleeing hunger, oppression, and sectarian violence in their island homeland. Their religion, customs, and language were foreign, even repugnant, to many Canadians. Some among them had violently opposed the government in their native land. They carried disease.

I'm speaking, of course, of the Irish; but when thousands arrived at Québec in the late 1840's, Canadians took them in. The courage, generosity, and compassion required to do so became foundational in the Canadian national character.

Only ninety years later, to our everlasting shame, we forgot who were. When 907 Jews, fleeing Nazi persecution, approached our shores in the S.S. St. Louis, we turned them away. They were forced to return to Germany, where only a few would survive the war.

To our credit, we have done much better since. In 1956 we admitted 37,000 Hungarians fleeing Soviet repression. And when hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese took to the sea in leaky boats in the chaotic aftermath of war, Canadian families, church groups, and community organizations took in 60,000 of them.

Canada has one of the most generous refugee policies in the world. We should be proud of that. But it bothers some people. I'm not sure why the fear of being occasionally taken advantage of should be greater than the fear of being responsible for sending someone back to his or her native country to face persecution, imprisonment, or death.

Sri Lanka has just come through a twenty-six year long civil war. Atrocities and human rights abuses were committed on both sides. Canadians have been bombarded by wildly differing versions of who the good guys are and who the villains are. We are understandably confused.

I don't know if the Tamils are real refugees or not, part of a criminal or terrorist conspiracy or not, a danger to Canada or not. But there's a process in place to find out; let it work.

And it does work. When 600 Chinese economic migrants arrived on our shores in 1999 claiming refugee status, all but 24 were sent home.

Canada processed 34,000 refugee claims last year; that's nearly 700 per week. The arrival of 492 Tamils is not going to overwhelm the system.

So let's just tune out the overheated rhetoric coming from politicians who seem more anxious to take the spotlight off their own problems with the census, the police, and the veterans.

At a minimum, the Tamils deserve the benefit of the doubt and fair treatment under Canadian and international law.

But we can do better than that: we can treat these people with compassion. Let's remember who we are: let's act like Canadians.